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but i get awakened from a technique or information the road is just come across of random stuff and then get enlighenment? what kind of hatha yoga you do? can you give me your practice?

Typical symptoms of schizophrenia include trouble focusing/ paying attention and poor working memory. This is the polar opposite of what you see in true spiritualy development. What makes you believe schizophrenics are awakened?

It will not get easy with the world unless when around common folk you go with the flow and act your things out. Average people will never understand an enlightened human being unless one is financially successful or people pleasing. But the awakened beings will tend to be natural and thankful of what they have; in most cases and scenarios people will take you for granted because they sense in the awakened one the simplicity in vibration as a child, so in consequence, one will encounter bullies, and generally will attract braggers and opposite counter vibrations.

Not wise to experiment with drugs unless you have awakened.

+1 +1 +1 Great thread, great share. That list is pretty exhaustive and I cant come up with anything to add right now. One thing that could be added is a dedicated sublist of enlightenment traps and move all the spiritual related points there, as there are plenty of them! This thread should maybe be stickied in time @Nahm @Leo Gura? There is much discussion about traps in the enlightenment stickies in the spirituality subforum, but gathering stuff in one place could be a good resource. I'll start with a few. These are all from the seekers perspective, before any glimpses or breaktroughs Being dogmatic about any school or practise Not exploring various perspectives Not reading theory/reading too much theory Starting enlightenment wars Theorizing and conceptualizing enlightenment Trying to have someone else's experience (that guy got enlightened with zen meditation, I will now only do zazen!) Trying too much/trying too little Chasing states (all states change, the substance where all states occur does not) Getting stuck in your mind "why I dont get it?" "why Im stuck in this body?" "I just want the ego to die already!" "Who is it who perceives me perceiving this though and who is it who asks this question, who who who who who....." Getting caught up in words (awareness, emptiness, I, me....) Worrying too much about what you should do vs. what you should not do Not recognizing belief from direct experience Not questioning your beliefs radically enough Dismissing psychedelics / doing too much psychedelics Believing enlightenment is hard Not recognizing the limits of any spiritual teacher/teaching Not recognizing the difference and limitations of both pre and post awakened advice Making practices chores you MUST do Dismissing the body and humanity Going overboard with diets/fasting Dismissing feelings and their source Ignoring bodily functions and natural needs of the body in general Celibacy as a method (sex is a distraction yes but so is a mind clouded in sexual thoughts, try it if you feel its part of your path) Hurting the body (the usefulness/reward ratio of straight up physical pain is questionable, although it has been tried and practiced succesfully by individuals) Believing there are problems Creating a path where the is none (I'll be closer to enlightenment when I have done x amount of yoga and y amount of meditation) Believing any part of experience is "blocking" you from seeing the truth ("Thoughts are a problem" is a though about thoughts) "Stopping the practice when you leave the cushion" Not making a commitment of life long seeking. The seeking will end when the time is right. Not conjuring massive amounts of patience and perseverance Not recognizing ducks as the superior spiritual teachers Feel free to edit your post @Sahil Pandit with my contribution if you will

There are 100's of traps in this work. Your mind will be your greatest enemy. Here are the most common traps people fall into: Journal about these issues you are dealing with Chasing quick-fixes. Not wanting to explore issues deeply or solve problems at their root. Not taking ownership of your life. Hoping for someone to give you a 1-2-3 step formula for success & happiness. Trying to be like someone else rather than working to discover YOUR authentic self. Chasing ideals and ideas of goodness. Feeling like it's too late, I'm too old to change, I've wasted so much time. Staying loyal to toxic friends/family who are holding you back. Not reading, not learning, not doing enough research. Expecting this work to be easy and pleasant. Learning from too few perspectives, thus getting an incomplete picture, not having enough options. Judging, moralizing, criticizing, debating, arguing, blaming. Asking for "scientific proof", as if someone can prove quality-of-life improvements to you. Being so skeptical of everything that you don't put the theory into practice. Speculating about and conceptualizing enlightenment, mystical experiences, and spiritual growth. Clinging to a naive realist paradigm, believing that reality is physical, logical, and Newtonian. Assuming that modern science has figured out most of reality. Underestimating the massive negative effects of mainstream culture, diet, media, entertainment, beliefs, etc. Not understanding how happiness really works. Thinking that external conditions or possessions produce happiness. Chasing gross material pleasures. Confusing success with happiness or true growth. Assuming that successful people, like your favorite role-models, celebrities, professors, CEOs, etc are happy. Not recognizing that mystical experiences are real and possible for you to have. Becoming ideological about anything whatsoever (theory, techniques, science, logic, politics, etc), not realizing that all human perspectives are partial. Confusing Truth with knowledge/belief Assuming that reality is rational, mistaking scientific maps and models for being. Working a job/career just for the money. Being stuck in wage slavery, working a 9-5 job, not having control of your schedule. Eating the Standard American Diet of wheat, dairy, sugar, meat, and processed foods. Assuming that personal development is all mental work, not doing any development or purification of your body. Consuming mainstream media. Not realizing how toxic modern media and entertainment is. Not taking full responsibility for your life Whining and complaining about how your situation is unfair and impossible to change. Not valuing or pursuing truth for its own sake. Treating truth as a luxury. Dismissing theory, philosophy, and beliefs as "merely" philosophy. Studying tons of theory without ever taking action. Improperly balancing your ratio of theory to practice. Mental masturbation. Keyboard-jockeying: over-conceptualizing, discussing, talking shit, and speculating but never embodying what is talked about. Having a short time horizon for all your goals, plans, and projects. Over-packing your schedule, leaving no time to sit, think, or meditate. Valuing and pursuing gross experiences vs subtle ones. Assuming that consciousness is a physical by-product of the brain. Assuming that you are physical body, or etherial soul. Projecting onto the teacher you're learning from. Getting triggered by teachers. Holding grudges. Debating with them. Trying to school your teacher. Clinging to the idea of good and evil, not realizing that these are all your projections. Going on a crusade to save the world or vanquish evil. Getting overly focused on acting "good" in the external world vs working on your own inner demons. Assuming that if life is meaningless, that's a bad thing. Setting unrealistic expectations. Being too impatience. Expecting big results to come quickly. Trying to change too much too fast. Lack of focus. Getting overwhelmed with all the options. Indecisiveness. Not taking action because, "I don't know how." Underestimating how much growth is possible. How much better your life can become. Assuming boundaries between objects are scientific, physically given. Distracting yourself from facing emptiness, negative emotions, loneliness, and ego backlashes. Misusing psychedelics: using them recreationally, using them socially, using them without proper research. Conceptually misunderstanding enlightenment Confusing enlightenment with a sensory experience or emotional state Trying to install too many new habits at once. Quitting meditation or self-inquiry when negative emotions or resistance surfaces. Not being decisive, thus maintaining the status quo by default. Not having a big vision for your life. Using negative motivation to get stuff done. Motivating yourself through competition with others, trying to "be the best". Making your vision all about personal success and wealth rather than contributing to the world. Being too cheap, not investing in books, courses, workshops, etc. Undervaluing self-education. Chasing after love, success, pleasure, excitement, rather than pursuing Truth and understanding. Assuming you need certain physical conditions to be happy. Conflating knowledge acquisition with growth/development. Dismissing "new age" concepts like spirits, aliens, God, healing, love, etc. Demonizing psychedelics. Not taking massive action. Assuming that "things will just work out". No they won't! Not having a spiritual practice because you've been told there's nothing to seek. Expecting people close to you to understand and support your efforts to grow. Trying in frustration to get everyone around you to change or become interested in personal development or spirituality. Not realizing or appreciating the incredible value of this work. Quitting Quitting when resistance kicks in. Quitting when emotional upheaval surfaces. Not getting back on track after backsliding or quitting. Beating yourself up for failures. Letting yourself get lulled back to sleep by our toxic and indifferent culture. Being dogmatic about any school or practise Not exploring various perspectives Not reading theory/reading too much theory Starting enlightenment wars Theorizing and conceptualizing enlightenment Trying to have someone else's experience (that guy got enlightened with zen meditation, I will now only do zazen!) Trying too much/trying too little Chasing states (all states change, the substance where all states occur does not) Getting stuck in your mind "why I dont get it?" "why Im stuck in this body?" "I just want the ego to die already!" "Who is it who perceives me perceiving this though and who is it who asks this question, who who who who who....." Getting caught up in words (awareness, emptiness, I, me....) Worrying too much about what you should do vs. what you should not do Not recognizing belief from direct experience Not questioning your beliefs radically enough Dismissing psychedelics / doing too much psychedelics Believing enlightenment is hard Not recognizing the limits of any spiritual teacher/teaching Not recognizing the difference and limitations of both pre and post awakened advice Making practices chores you MUST do Dismissing the body and humanity Going overboard with diets/fasting Dismissing feelings and their source Ignoring bodily functions and natural needs of the body in general Celibacy as a method (sex is a distraction yes but so is a mind clouded in sexual thoughts, try it if you feel its part of your path) Hurting the body (the usefulness/reward ratio of straight up physical pain is questionable, although it has been tried and practiced succesfully by individuals) Believing there are problems Creating a path where the is none (I'll be closer to enlightenment when I have done x amount of yoga and y amount of meditation) Believing any part of experience is "blocking" you from seeing the truth ("Thoughts are a problem" is a though about thoughts) "Stopping the practice when you leave the cushion" Not making a commitment of life long seeking. The seeking will end when the time is right. Not conjuring massive amounts of patience and perseverance Not recognizing ducks as the superior spiritual teachers

@blazed I just read this and it sounds a lot like what you experience. By Andrew Z. Cohen 180 One of the many miraculous functions of meditation is that it is a portal to a different dimension. When you go deeply into the meditative state, your awareness detaches itself from the thought-stream. Then your identification with emotion, memory, time and body begins to fall away. You become aware of something very mysterious. Imagine that you had been fast asleep in a small dark chamber and then you suddenly awakened to find yourself floating in the infinite depth of a vast, peaceful ocean. You literally become aware of a new dimension, when moments before you had experienced yourself as being trapped, a prisoner of your body, mind and emotions. When you awaken to this new dimension, all sense of confinement disappears. You feel that you have access to the whole universe and also to that which the universe exists within. You’re aware of body, mind, time, and space, but there’s another dimension that extends in all directions, unlimited by any of it. Meditation is the portal to this dimension, a door to the realization of limitlessness. Why is this experience significant? Because the infinite context you awaken to is not just a quiet place inside your own head. It’s a deeper dimension of reality itself. Life, death and everything in between, reality as a whole — the seen and the unseen, the known and the unknown, all that ever was and ever could be — is made up of both the manifest and the unmanifest. But most of the time, all we are aware of is the manifest dimension, the domain of time and space and becoming. Meditation will give you the direct, conscious experience of the unmanifest dimension, which is the ground of being itself. The “ground of being” is empty. It is an objectless, timeless, spaceless, thoughtless void. But everything that exists has come from this no-place, including you and me. Paradoxically, while empty, this no-place is pregnant with infinite, unborn potential. It is the ground we all emerge from, the womb of the entire universe. When something came from nothing, 14 billion years ago, the nothing didn’t disappear. That unmanifest, unborn dimension is the ever-present ground out of which everything is arising in every moment. And meditation allows you to know this ground within your own experience. Even in the awareness of the body and the movement of thought, beneath it all, in the state of meditation, you become conscious of a current of stillness that is the echo and the reflection of the ground of being. There is a great mystery there. In the infinite depth of that emptiness, there arises a knowing, a pure knowing itself that seems to answer all our questions and relieve us of all our existential doubts. Whenever we journey far enough beyond the conditioned mind — beyond thought, beyond form, beyond time — we will always discover this same mystery. That is why we meditate, so we can awaken to the instantaneously liberating nature of the ground of being. The more profound is our experience of the ground of being, the more we begin to emanate that mysterious knowing which is enlightened consciousness itself.

I speak from the perspective of whom is not awakened yet, hardcore sports can destroy one's health. I speak by experience, being a veteran runner/cyclist/rickshaw and powerlifter. After awakening, there is no problem.

I'm back guys (of course, we always knew). Hard, strict boundaries no longer resonate with my heart. It is a fluid being, which can't be contained when awakened. We are all God here to have fun, and risk doing what we love against the imaginary consequences we create. It's nice to have lived another day to tell you this. I also learnt that love is everything, even ego is pure love, the feelings you have are intuitions, not self-sabotage. Everlasting love is already here, we are just becoming aware of it. This process of releasing karma to experience the infinite emptiness of spirit is very painful (and it's hard not to run away from it you know when it is so easy to) Guess that's why only a few thousand are truly enlightened.

Usually, the awakened ones are not into politics nor public figures. The public figures are usually initiated. So, those so-called famous gurus are only an image of someone who lived their entire lives away from society.

Be in a relationship with your heart. Love it as deeply as you would love your soulmate. Ask it what it wants to do, if it is feeling okay, and send it infinite blessings and compliments and gifts of unconditional bundles of love and hugs, for you will see that your heart will become alive just like a person. I walk around as two people, I'm the parent loving my heart, sometimes I'm the heart being loved by the parent. When the parent and heart merge in union, that is the full embodiment of awakened consciousness in physical form AKA enlightenment. Enlightenment is the mastery of relationships or all duality's into the purity wholeness and perfection of oneness. Girls love this in a man you know

Do you really think so? I feel psychedelics are pointless when you are fully awakened. I feel they are more for people who are more in an emergency situation in life and need a glimpse of truth before suicide? Psychedelics only ever showed me what i already knew and experienced naturally just more in a short period of time and more intense. They do help you remember the Enlightened state or confirm what you know from within(shall we say) but if you apply and live it daily, there is no need IMO.

You have yet to become awakened & see the big picture, not only the perspective of the mind. What seems truth on a perspective or reality and vibration level, can be false in higher stages. I do not doubt your experiences, but the world is big and one can be impressed by other entities or living persons. If one is not fully awake, then entities will apear to speak to you, or so called past lives, even with full movie, sound and video and feelings. Do not pay attention to color or light entities. Any thought and entity fight for self preservation as the whole reality. Follow your Thymus always, Thymus will tell you exactly what is all about when is connected with the whole system. Until is not connected in your awareness with the whole, then the perspective of reality is limited. Blessings

I disagree. Psychedelics and drugs in general are for the awakened ones as a tool to expand faster. For the uninitiated and dormant, stick with your coffee.

Hi! It comes and goes!! Asking the right question?... "What do I do to stay in the awakened state? the right question is what makes more sense is to ask how you unenlightened yourself what is still held on to? what is still confusing? what can situations in life get you to believe things that aren't true and cause you to go into contradictions, suffering, and separation? what is it specifically that has the power to entice consciousness back?"- The End Of Your World by adyashanti I realized recently that enlightenment ain't no joke. You have to be very strict with yourself. Ego is what I believe I am right now. When I sit to self-inquire, I reach my natural self, but it wears off as soon as I open my eyes. Why? because I unenlighten myself. "You harm yourself as dust thrown against the wind comes back at the thrower"- The Buddha Here is what the ego create: Fear an anxiety; It is all related to my ego. I no longer have the same anxiety I used to have in the part, but there is still fear running in my system. Anger, bitterness, violence, intolerance. Feeling that life is unfair Guilt criticism and blame Emotional pain shyness and insecurity boredom and loneliness stress addiction!! sexual misconduct lying dishonesty manipulative behavior relationship problems Working in the wrong job inability to love others Not being able to be a benevolent force in the world Dogma and ideology obsessive thinking Dying a sorry death Here is what I should do: Stop watching the news, or at least if I want, I should do it consciously Not getting distracted by youtube videos Being mindful of the way my ego judges others, act in a superiority complex way, my fear.

Love implies balance, meaning Holy. Balance implies cutting the old dried branches of the tree, this includes egos and persons. Holy means one has to know the darkness and the light. The dormant ones don't know what Love is in reality, only the awakened. The spiritual children out there reject true LOVE, they only have concepts like loving and forgiving, but they don't know that when you love another human being you become what you love, and if that human being is dormant and un-awakened, you tell me. There are 2 type of awakenings. 1 going alone in pure selfishness and 2 being with the humanity as a whole, which never happens. So in conclusion only the 1 way is the way.

I waited for her to come, but she didn't. The seer and the seen are one. If I vanish my ego, all that is left is pure seeing. It's so amazing and so insane, I no longer want to do anything. The hearer and the heard are one. As I meditate on my hearing, I no longer interpret sounds negatively or even positively. Sound is just sound; beautiful as it is. There is no need to add anything. God...what a beautiful word... Thinking... There is no thinking. There is just a stream of thoughts, which keeps occurring. I am awakened on the level of almost all senses, but there is only one problem which is thinking. I need to work very hard on this one.

There is no past life nor karma (karma simply means your doing) that follows you after death or birth, it is a belief system. There are only past lives of other human beings who lived, and the awakened one can feel and see all the genealogy of humanity. The position of the stars when one is born has a unique influence on the human being, because that is his/hers first experience with the outside world, first feeling of being outside. Who is stuck in past life beliefs is no better than a fundamentalist christian, still sleeping.

Now everybody wants to become extraordinary , in an awakened spiritual civilization everybody will be very ordinary.

many equate spiritual advancement with becoming buddha, passive, zen for me its like becoming superman or wonderman, clarity, action, presence, life, love its action coming to flow with presence what would a world full of wonderwomen and supermen look like? thats what I view an awakened spiritual civilization as

I think he was one of those early awoke beings that had no one else to turn to or understand them for guide or help so he went crazy. I've been to a mental institute before, you'd be amazed how many awakened beings there is there but had gone crazy because no one around them ever understood them and eventually society labelled them as crazy and forced fed meds for schizophrenia and other disorders which severely disrupts connection to spirit(due to physical damage caused by artificial medication) even more so they will appear just as crazy now.

It depends on path you choose. There are two basic paths. The path of surrender and the path of will. They are diametrically opposite as far as going through them is concerned. But they reach to the same goal. The path of will starts with your witnessing Self. It is not concerned with your ego directly. If the inner Self is awakened, the ego disappears as a consequence. Yoga is a path of will. The path of surrender is directly concerned with the ego, not with the Self. When the ego disappears, the inner Self is awakened automatically. The path of surrender is concerned with the ego immediately, directly. Tantra is a path of surrendering.

2018/05/13 Asking the right question?... What do I do to stay in the awakened state? the right question is what makes more sense is to ask how you unenlightened yourself what is still held on to? what is still confusing? what can situations in life get you to believe things that aren't true and cause you to go into contradictions, suffering, and separation? what is it specifically that has the power to entice consciousness back?"

This is interesting. I kind of see myself as an extreme case of HSP haha. Yes, spirituality / awakening sometimes feels like it comes easier to me. Its like I can easily tap into it at will. 9 out of 10 times meditation pulls me into some kind of awakened/mystic state. Which is great. I can grow very quickly in a short amount of time because of it. That said The downside is that I'm equally sensitive towards ego. Im very easily addicted for instance. In a weird way these two forces even themselves out. But life turns into this extreme eb and flow between spirituality and addiction. But, that's exactly what turns it into an oppurtunity for growth. Its very easy to notice these things happening to you when a lot of it is based in extremes. Took some time to appreciate that though. And lets not even begin about psychedelics.

I found this great video about how the brain can be rewired to change the way we experience reality. It seems it has a lot to do with focusing the mind at an elevated level. I found this video interesting b-c when I experienced my first awakening there was a distinct shift that felt as if thought had come to a point of perfect focus or hyper focus. Hard to explain exactly but something distinctly shifted in awareness. I remember thinking to myself afterwards "Holy shit I never knew that was possible". It was as if something that had been dormant was suddenly awakened. So that's why I feel it's important to share this video with you guys. It's a bit long but well worth listening to. I'm going to start practicing "re-wiring" of the brain by putting total trust in the fact that the universe knows way more than I do and in the process dropping my old patterned views and expectations of how reality works so that the doors are wide open to all possibilities. So the question is, can we completely re-invent ourselves through our thoughts? I say, why not? For the most part I invented this "self" that I experience now. Why shouldn't I be able to re-invent it?