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In the direction of living in Truth, it is important to remember these two rules: (i) Life is a dream; (ii) We are the witness. There are very few fortunate ones who realize the truth of existence. The majority of us live and die in slumber. We have to awaken from this dream life, in order to realize That which is not a dream; we have to become aware of the drama in order to recognize that which is not a drama. Since all lies belong to the dream-world, they are false and untrue. Once this is experienced, one realizes that one was always free! What immeasurable bliss and joy this knowledge brings in its wake! There is no way of gauging its dimensions, nor can it be expressed in words, nor is there a method of conveying this joy. It can only be lived and experienced. As we proceed in this witness-state, so the path unfolds before us; and once the door opens, no matter how little, there is so much left to be done by ourselves. That lithe opening then, keeps calling the individual; it attracts him so that he cannot help but be drawn towards it. If a man jumps from a roof, he cannot stop to ask what he has to do next; the ground will do the needful – the gravitation of the earth will pull him down. His work is over as soon as he leaps; the earth then takes over and finishes the rest for him. Once a man leaps into the witness-state, he has nothing more to do himself. Then the pull of the Universal Spirit, the gravitation of God, does the rest. As long as we stand in the dream world, this power does not work, but as soon as we break through the dream world, and jump out of it, the pull of God begins to work. Then, when a man walks one step towards God, he walks a thousand step towards him. Then, a slight effort and the reward is a thousand-fold; one feeble call evokes a flood of response from Him! But we are such, we refuse to budge even an inch from our dream-state. Rather, we are forever occupied in strengthening its walls from all sides. He who is surrounded by lesser things, begins to dream of bigger things. The dream of living in a hut is a painful dream; the dream of living in a palace is an enjoyable dream; so all those whose dreams are painful, dream of more fulfilling dreams. And the more we dream, the further we are from Truth. Dreams are to be destroyed and not nurtured – but we are displeased and upset if anyone talks of destroying our dreams! Those that sleep are the losers; those that have awakened, they alone attain the wealth, the beauty, the prosperity of life. Please remember these two short rules: Life is a dream and man has to be only a witness thereof. As the witness-state develops, the dreams begin to break until only That remains in the end, which is the Reality, which is the Truth.

It is not a dream life to you; it is real. When you see a dream the dream is real. Somebody who has awakened from sleep may go on saying that whatsoever you are seeing is just a dream, but the person who is dreaming, he is dreaming a reality, not a dream. In a dream, howsoever absurd, you cannot feel it as a dream. You believe in it, because once you feel it is a dream the dream disappears. The dream cannot remain there, your cooperation is withdrawn. You can cooperate only with reality, not with dreams; and if you cooperate dreams become reality -- it is through your cooperation. In the night, deep in sleep, you dream that you have become a king. You may be a beggar, or vice versa: you may be a king and you dream that you have become a beggar. But in that dream you are so identified you cannot think that it could be a dream. If you can think that it could be a dream, the dream will stop immediately. It will be broken, you will come out of it. If you realize in dream that it is a dream the dream is broken, the dream cannot exist. It exists through your cooperation, your identification is needed. If you are committed to it, if you get involved in it, only then can it continue. And the same happens with the greater dream which is life. When you realize this is a dream, immediately you have become a Buddha, you are enlightened. But this enlightenment cannot happen to you by others' knowing, others' wisdom. Buddha may go on calling to you that this is a dream you are living, but you will only feel that this man is a disturbance, a constant nuisance, he is disturbing your life. That's why we kill such persons. Socrates -- we poisoned him because he was a great disturber. Jesus -- we crucified him because he was a nuisance. Everybody is dreaming such beautiful dreams, and these persons unnecessarily, and without being invited, go on disturbing people and saying to them, "Wake up! You are dreaming. This is a dream." And the man may have been dreaming such a beautiful thing that he could throw away all life for that dream. If you become alert a dream disappears; if you become alert of your misery, the misery disappears. You cling to it because you think it is not misery, or some happiness is hidden somewhere in it. It may be misery outwardly, but a deep treasure is hidden behind it, so you have to cling to it for that treasure. Your life is misery -- but not for you. Realize its misery, it falls down. The very truth transforms you. And the moment misery falls the divine is revealed. To a miserable mind the divine cannot be revealed. To a celebrating mind the divine is revealed. Remember, only to a celebrating mind, to a mind which is happy, blissful, enjoying moment to moment, ecstatic, is the divine revealed. To a miserable mind the divine cannot be revealed, because a miserable mind is closed. The divine is here and now, but you are not here and now. If you are also here and now then the divine will be revealed to you.

Interesting. Hard to get around the time-delay effect of our biological information-relay system.. but what if we skew our perspective or widen it and shift the context a little? Are we not truly present fairly easily just by maintaining or prolonging any current run on awareness of our present moments, moment by moment, as consistently and as often as possible? Hmmm, I'm pondering as I write, and my gut says that (as we become more and more awakened) we manage (or realize?) more of an actual reality as presence than a 'pseudo-presence' that's retarded or offset in any manner by biological limits or time constraints. And actually, how excited are we going to get about labels and symbols? What's stopping us from embodying our essential nature as being outside of time and not coached or limited by such constructs? Sure, practical clock-time as a tool so I can pay my rent on the first and meet you at two for lunch, but... let's strive to just recognize our self-limiting concepts and delusions for what they are and work towards transcending all that.

@Prabhaker I see. 'Enlightenment' is just a term, a label. There are more enlightened/awakened people around than one might think (even on this site), they just won't reveal it. If you have shifted to dis-illusionment of who 'you' are (self-realization) and there is permanence to that realization, that's IT. It could happen to anyone anytime, with or without meditating even...from a yogi to a drunk on the way home from a pub. It's unpredictable, sudden, simple, yet profound. After the initial seeing, there is usually a process of deepening that can take the remainder of one's lifespan. Self-inquiry is a good way to help trigger the shift (there is logic involved in self-inquiry, btw). I had mine while doing a guided self-inquiry meditation in one of Leo's Enlightenment videos. Life just went on as usual afterwards. Before chop wood, carry water... It's also true when they say that once it happens, you just know. Peace

@LifeandDeath Our consciousness in it's most illuminated state is aware that it is awareness which manifests in the mind as our self conscious of itself. As we awaken our awareness to being aware our ego awakens to itself being an awakened awareness.... monkey see monkey do.... hehe Duality is just a paradigm of the mind, one that it uses to 2d "model" reality but awakening is like a quantum collapse in our consciousness so entangles infinite potential.

@Michael119 Congratulations, man! You're making a lot of progress. My awakening was severely impacted by a same experience. You'll find details here : https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/9709-am-i-awakened/

@Shin awakened already you are and appreciated deeply, he says..

Me an awakening can he give. Yes, hmmm. @Sevi I be awakened without knowing it, how could, hmm? Hmmm, hmm?! Hmmmmmm ????!!!!

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.

The problem really is with language. There have been so many times that there is just no way to put into words what I am trying to say. On top of that, a lot of the things seem contradictory. To someone who is first starting to meditate, that can be difficult. For me personally, meditation came natural. I had been doing hypnosis, so I knew what "trance" felt like, and it was easily adopted into meditation. I actually read nothing and knew nothing about meditation, so the approach was organically to understand myself. I awakened before knowing what awakening was, so I obviously started researching, and when the insights started coming, it was pretty obvious what was going on. The concepts i acquired in research slowed me down in many ways, but also collectively provided a basis. Maybe it would have been faster if I hadn't looked it up, but that is irrelevant because that's not what happened, and in the end, it taught me a lesson. Nothing that anyone says will affect how someone proceeds in regards to their "strategy". It is good for there to be practical applications for people that would otherwise maybe read info that would side track them with grandiose concepts, but frankly, the self wants to find those concepts anyways generally. See... Fuck language, so much of that is contradictory because I really don't have a position on it, because there is so little control over it. You basically just have to do what you do, and in the end realize that you have done none of it. I love all y'all.

Well my ego is completely separate from the "me" that lives fully in the present moment, love to help people, feel one, know that life is a game, hasn't got any kind of neurotic reaction anymore and feel complete ! So yes i'm awakened, no doubt about it Maybe waiting for some future event will never happen tho but every Guru that i watch say that after awakening there is nothing to do to get to enlightement so i was wondering if this was real !

If you are still on this forum you are not fully awakened.

Love happens, when your meditation is not an activity. When meditation is not a separate process. when meditation is simply the name for life lived with awareness. An individual is awakened the day when he begins to live meditatively. So understand well that meditation is not just one of life’s innumerable activities. It is not just one link in the chain of man’s endless doings. If you are living twenty-three hours a day without awareness, and only one hour with awareness, then you will never attain it. It is very arduous to attain.

principal of acceleration, a positive spiral, the more you advance, the better you get at advancing the beginning really is the hardest part of spirituality, once the ball gets rolling I assure you that change happens fast and constantly. the promise of spirituality is a life of constant joy and happiness and fulfilling, does anyone sometimes think about what it takes for them to be in a state of constant joy and happiness? it takes some serious changes in the degree, intensity and variety of your reality. spirituality WILL blow your mind, literally, you will experience things that will make your mouth drop. the beginning is slow, that is normal, you're slowly awakening to your identity as a soul if you really want to advance faster I suggest you read a book called ''seth: the eternal validity of the soul'' written directly by an highly awakened soul that lives in the ethereal world beyond physical life and time. it is literally a teacher from beyond our dimension

@nightrider1435 I had the same realization. I am happy for you that you realized this as well I think one should be wise enough to take a REAL personal journey, not just theorizing, and thinking he got the Truth. It has to be LIVED. Meditation helped me a lot in overcoming my neurosis, but I am not awakened yet. " The longest journey is the journey inward" Rumi

Love is love, hate is hate, compassion is what it is and abuse is as well. We can live loving and compassionate lives and we can eliminate hate and abuse in us without ever seeing it as moral. Dividing everything into two piles and labeling one "good" and the other "evil" is endorsing the separated mindset. As someone grows in recognition of us being as part of a whole being the natural expression of that is to not harm a part of ourselves. If someone needs a code or rules to tell them to not do harm, have they awakened at all?

Of course we don't know the full picture. He might be a complete fraud and not have been enlightened whatsoever and still act the way he does. You cannot know that, just as you can't know if he did indeed have an awakened expirience. I would disagree that he is teaching by example. Someone who teaches by examples, does not go around and say "You are so negative, think positive!", but would simply be positive and let that sparkle curiousity in others. I guess this roots in the lack of wisdom, and lack of understanding the human mind. He does not understand himself, the workings of his psyche, which for me is an essential part on the path of enlightenment. The ego, as we know, can take any expirience that is non-permanent and use it for it's own purpose. If you expirience ego-death, once the ego reappears, it might think of itself that it is enlightened. This will give the ego a sense of superiority, that it will of course not utter in thoughts, but rather in subtle deeds and behaviour. The ego is not enlightened, it can never be. It's very dangerous for the ego to identify with this concept, especially after having had a direct expirience of it. It's difficult to tell, but it does seem like he is conditioned by various sources that claim to know the truth. He believes in concepts that he has no direct expirience of, infact he is absolutely certain of them. He is certain that mere positive thinking can change the world around him, but he had no direct expirience of that. The certainity is what indicates immaturity of the mind to me. If you look at people who have taken this path and seem to be successful with it, you will notice a certain humbleness. The ego can claim an expirience to be his, even if it was true. It can always self-decept, and the reason why this is so dangerous is because the ego now claims it knows absolute truth. Even though the truth is the absence of knowing, the ego is trapped in a belief system that it cannot escape. Before, the ego was investigating, questioning and it was skeptical. Now it claims to know the truth, and there might be no turning back from that. It seems to me like it's essential to have a proper understanding of the ego before having an enlightenment expirience. The ego is so well at deception that it will do anything to survive. It will even pretend to be selfless, loving and all knowing, just to avoid true death. You said it yourself, awakening can cause a massive paradigm shift. In this case it seems like this massive paradigm shift created a paradigm-lock, far firmer than the paradigm that was held before. It's not full surrender, it's the pretending of full surrender. It's not true love, it's the pretending of true love. He claims to know the unknowable truth. It's the ego grasping and holding onto awakening to avoid it's own parishing.

Back when I was in college I was a pretty militant atheist. I didn't say that god was provably non-existent, but I certainly fought with people about their need to give up all beliefs. I would enter debates and talks with people about religion like all the time. Then my girlfriend at the time showed me three short stories called The Egg, The Last Question, and The Last Answer. Reading them shook me to the core and awakened something deep in me. It was the first time I had cried reading anything. She had only seen them as neat science fiction. But to me, it was different. Something inside of me knew that these stories pointed towards the truth, despite my inability to fully explain it. From then on, I understood what it was like to begin taking spiritual texts seriously. Over time, my feelings towards religions shifted toward pure open-mindedness and empathy. I wanted to share these stories with you to inspire you and give you food for thought. They only take at most 20 minutes each to finish, but their messages are quite profound. The first one to check out is called The Egg by Andy Weir. It helped me begin to understand reincarnation and karma. You can find it here: http://highexistence.com/images/view/the-egg-by-andy-weir/ The second one is called The Last Question by Isaac Asimov. It informs my current life purpose and what's worth it to focus on technologically. I'm pretty sure this story inspires Elon Musk and all of his companies, too: http://multivax.com/last_question.html The third one is called The Last Answer. It is also written by Isaac Asimov. It helps me understand a bit of the nature of growing the quality of my consciousness. I think it goes well with The Egg. Leo posted in the insights blog about how time and reality goes in a circle. Perhaps this is a way of what that would look like: http://www.thrivenotes.com/the-last-answer/ After years of contemplative, psychedelic, and academic research into enlightenment, I think these stories do a great job of at least inspiring one toward capital T Truth. They echo many of the main ideas of ancient traditions around the world, except modernized and thus easier to understand. So read em and post here what you think!!!

Such hate, and yet he is such a sweet sweet representation of the values actualized.org should be striving for. 1. Self-responsibility 2. Teaching by example 3. Emotional mastery 4. Enlightenment (even if its just debatebale) 5. Detachment from relationship and then allowing them to form on a deeper level 6. Non-materialism 7. Open mindedness 8. Optimism Dr. Phil is a douche and makes him look bad, and he knows so. Deepak from a Chopper is just derping around like "I really don't know what Im doing." Let the guy be. And be honest with yourself when asking the following question. If you awakened and found yourself in a place of deeply deeply conditioned family and felt powerless in all efforts to helping them, would a thought of leaving them not cross your mind? If he leaves them, he can do good to receptive souls. The ones that are ready to awaken. When he talked about positive thinking I believe he could have meant manifestation, not just "aww ima tell myself this affirmation". Which isn't nothing terribly evil. Of course he could have been confused on the brink of awakening. You underestimate how big of a paradigm shift awakening can bring, and how messy your circustamstances can get. And also one thing to notice Many of you kind of went in the direction of sheeple. Of Dr. Phil. Of mainstream culture. So what a great opportunity to ask the following. How am I still conditioned in the western materialistic cult? And you will open a pandora's box, that has a bright light on the bottom.

What evidence do you have to prove this blanket statement? Not necessarily true, "younger people" just have different focuses/conversations, not more awakened, I may suggest a bit more self absorbed, mildly narcissistic, and less tolerant than their prior.

When Jesus was crucified , when Krishna and Mohammad were fighting wars and killing others. Were they not awakened ?

Some people can have this........ Insomnia Another sleep disturbance is waking in the night and not being able to go back to sleep for hours. Or not being able to get to sleep. I believe these problems are caused by a high ammonia level in the brain. This belief is based on two observations. Ornithine, an ammonia reducer, induces a wonderful sleep in sleepdeprived persons. It is also observed that after killing parasites, which produce ammonia, sleep is much improved. Our metabolismdoes not produce ammonia. We produce urea which is excreted by the kidneys along with water and then called urine. When we are parasitized, our metabolism is burdened with ammonia, though, made by the parasites. We have to turn it into urea in the liver and kidneys so we can excrete for them. But this can't be done in the brain! The brain lacks an essential enzyme, ornithine carbamyl-transferase, for this bit of biochemistry. The brain was never meant to be parasitized or infected and has no defense. Most of our parasites come from animals we associate with. We weren't meant to live with horses, cows, sheep, pigs, monkeys, guinea pigs, cats, dogs and chickens nor to come in contact with dozens more at a zoo. We do so at our own peril. It is known that ammonia is a strong brain irritant. In fact, a person can be awakened from a coma by being made to smell ammonia “smelling salts.” Ornithine reacts with ammonia, mopping it up like a sponge. Arginine, another amino acid, also reacts with ammonia, but does not put you to sleep. So there is more to insomnia than mere inability to reduce ammonia levels. Arginine results in alertness and therefore should be used in the morning, when needed. Ornithine, given at bedtime, may take ½ hour to do its magic. Both are perfectly safe, since they are natural to your body, and a food constituent. Start by taking two ornithine capsules (each 500 mg.) on the first night. Take four the next night. Take six the night after and choose the dose you like best. Sometimes it takes five days to “catch up” on everything that needs to be done for the brain and get you sleeping. Meanwhile, of course, you are planning to kill your parasites and be done with insomnia in the most effective way of all. Just some info J@Loreena not saying you suffer from it.

I may not have reached the highest state, I have attained what I have and i have no basis for comparison. I use just basic meditative practices, nothing intricate or exotic. The practices aren't the key, it's the actual inner work we do. I don't have many labels for what I experience, I have tried to equate it to some of the words on ideas people use for the different things I hear from them but I don't know if they really do. So pardon me for my vagueness. Any chance you can find, clear and focus the mind on the now in a small meditation moment. It doesn't matter where and it doesn't have to last long. in the shower, standing in line at the store, waiting for a stop light to change even on the toilet. Anytime the mind would normally wander off and churn around on the tedium of life, instead use the moment to meditate. This will bring a heightened illuminated state to normal daily life, as I did this I found that my overall more awakened state stayed with me through more complicated tasks. It also allowed me to meditate deeper and deeper. It is a challenge to focus on the moment while our brain is needed for normal life tasks so this illuminated state fluctuates through the day depending on how much my mind has to focus on a task. Tasks that are well practiced behavior and the subconscious mind can do it so I pretty much run on "auto pilot" so allows for a heightened state to be maintained. Obviously when the task involves the safety of yourself and others like operating dangerous equipment or driving those heightened states can limit the ability to accomplish the task safely so the mind should be attuned to the task. Although I will admit there were some long road trips across vast empty distances that I had some incredible meditative moments....but i wouldn't suggest it.

You were working under the fallacy – that the society can be changed and the individual will change automatically. You cannot do anything to it. Whatever has to be done is to be done to the individual. Don’t think that words are not powerful. Ordinary, mundane words have no power; they have only utility. But when the enlightened man speaks, the word has no utility; it has simply a tremendous power to transform your heart. The awakened people down the ages have not seen anything more powerful than the word. It is just a question of spreading it, and spreading it not like a parrot, not like a gramophone record, but spreading it as a representative of it. Whatever you say, you should be; only then can your saying have power. It is a question of living the message. Your life should be a proof of it; then nothing else is needed.

As soon as the mind desires sexual pleasure, the body begins to make preparations for it. From the sex centre the ganglia begins pulsating another demand. The sex centre becomes projected outside. The science of Tantra says, if the sex centre can be made to project inwards and can be drawn within (which is known as sex-mudra), you will within two moments find that the body has ceased its demand for sex. But the demand was made and the energy for it was already awakened. It is possible to take this energy upwards. No sooner do we think about sex that our mind begins to flow towards the genital organs. One has to draw the genital organs inwards. All the doors going out from the genital organs will be closed. When the energy has already been awakened, we should close our eyes at that time. Having closed the eyes begin to look at the head from within, just as you see a ceiling from within a room. By constant practice you will find within a month that something from below has begun to rise up. This will be, in fact, your experience that something has started to rise above, something is going up. Some call it kundalini, some give in another name. It is necessary to pay attention to two points here. One is the muladhar and other is the upper centre sahstradhar. Sahastradhar is our centre at the top level and muladhar is our centre at the lowest level. Muladhar is contracted inwards. The energy created in it tries to find a way out. Now we should direct our mind to the higher direction or upper direction, because that path is open. The energy of the body starts flowing towards that direction in which the mind is directed. This is a small process in the transformation. If you experiment with this, celibacy will be achieved without suppression. Now, you can fail any seductress ! Hope it helps.