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As for you questions: 1 do enlightenment not experience a wide range of emotions? Like adventures, or you feel hyped up in a concert. Big Yes ! .. enlightenment brings you closer to your feelings and emotions. All of them.. We are not here to remain in a perpetual state of bliss.. if this were the case we would of stayed were we where before we came to life. We are Human ! We are meant to experience all human emotions ! Friendship, Falling in Love, Sex, Laughter, Joy, Sadness, good and bad moods etc.. You are going through the process.. as @Leo Gura said. The goal of this fase is to drop resisitance and find balance and acceptance.. in this case trying to remain in a certain state of mind all the time.. The key is to be mindful of your own state of mind knowing and accepting that it is subject to change. That's how you let go of resistance and find peace. 2 do enlightenment people not experience the fullfilment from contibution? Since they are not identified with the material they make. When I make something on guitar, I do not feel that enthousiasm, it is just empty expression. Another Big Yes ! .. Knowing who you are doesnt mean you have to live in a cave ! Nothing in your life has to change. You dont have to quit your job, move to india, change your eating habits, or the way you speak .. etc And yes contributing to society is still a very important part of your life. And you can definetly still enjoy it.

7489 Just finished today´s meditation. Used the "do nothing" technique this time. Time passed by quickly. Could have continued for longer. This whole body-mind thing is really interesting... There was this tingle sensation but this "inside tingle". It asked Itself what that even is. Turns out this was in straight relation with the stress that comes with the urge to stick with today´s plan. Now, this tingle once It became more aware of it went straight up to the nose, like that the immune system was having this response to these... Thoughts? Well more like subconscious expectations of Itself. Sneezed twice or so and then It was maybe not in bliss but at least somewhat relaxed and centered... Interestingly when It sits down to meditate all kinds of discomforting thoughts don´t come up that much and when they do they don´t cause so much resistance, it is as if they don´t even belong to Itself-kinda surreal. Yesterday was good. Stayed around 7 hours at uni, small breaks... The first hours passed quickly then concentration levels started dropping. It is proud anyways. But one day does not make a habit... So let´s not become too euphoric here. Quite amazing how much time one could spend studying and practicing the material of Leo´s videos. There is so much potential and juicy, useful, qualitative information in there. Reading questions and answers in the forum contributes only a tiny bit in comparison to listening to these. The longer It thinks about this the more It realizes that only because of trying a little here and there to act upon these concepts nothing too great will happen. This is hard work actually if done correctly. Now if a human wants then whatever would normally be just pain is not perceived as such because it is passion. It has one of Its really thoughty phases again. Got almost hit by a car yesterday. Not because It did not see it but because It just continued walking after a glimpse. Guess that is far from "in the moment" but better than an all cloudy mind. At least it is able to concentrate at SOME-thing. As for the clarification of what It wants to create... Still unspecific. Might work on that later again. That´s it. "See" you tomorrow. -(° °)-

I'm not sure what to believe about reincarnation. Who really knows. One the one hand, maybe consciousness returns to it's original source and just recycles back as pure consciousness into some other life form. There is a lot out there to this universe for consciousness to occupy. Or maybe consciousness is just a product of existence and when the body dies, consciousness is finished also and it all ends there. But on the other hand, maybe there is an essence or spirit self or soul, or divine self that returns to the manifest realm to do more work. Some believe that enlightened teachers are very old souls that have reincarnated many times before. When we pass on could that divine self enter into a higher realm, and from there decide to either move into infinite bliss and vanish, or return to existence to do more work? Why do I have a feeling if that is the case, my divinity would choose to return to this raw existence instead of moving into the infinite bliss of nothingness? I'm experiencing something very deeply at this very moment, something that I know extends much farther than this existence, divinity. Tears are suddenly pouring from my eyes for all of humanity. I love you all

Yes, I see this when meditating. Interestingly I often wonder whether other animals spend more time living with that 'peace of mind' that we find very hard to cultivate. They don't live 'in their own heads' like we do. They're living outwardly. You could call it ignorant bliss. But that's the point really - what is ignorance other than the absence of awareness of knowledge. They can't sit around worrying about life, questioning it. Unless they are in iminent danger or facing some other threat they are at peace. We spend too much time analysing and questioning our lives and our world. We're forever in our heads thinking, worrying, wondering, challenging life. We don't spend enough time living outwardly and just 'being'. The more knowledge, models and beliefs we have the more time we spend rearranging, modifying and reviewing it. We can't just sit down and 'be', without some useless thought-story taking over our focus and consciousness. We need thoughts, to a point. We have a remarkable piece of biological engineering in our skulls. But we need to refine the amount of data that we shove in there. Put it to better use and reduce the amount of wasted mental resource taken up by neuroses and other meanlingless pursuits. I don't know yet where the balance is. But there must be some truth to this. I can't speak for anyone else but when I meditate I can't maintian focus for more than 10 or 20 seconds at a time. When you become mindful of your thoughts throughout your day, you become aware of how short-lived your moments of concentration and focus are. How short the periods of true mindfulness are. Something seems off that we spend more time distracted by thoughts than actually focussed on the present moment. Perhaps this is how our brains are wired from evolution. Perhaps it's the conditioning and BS we fill them with througout our lives. To me it seems our species is becomming more trapped by it's own mind as time goes on and less in touch with reality. There must be a way to shrink the knowledge base and reverse this effect. Interesting topic.

Freedom and discipline are opposites and they are also complementary. The purpose of defense is to protect freedom. But is there freedom in defense? Do soldiers have freedom? No, they are bound, not allowed to put the right foot down when told the left foot. Their steps are measured; they are unable even to walk with a natural rhythm. There is no freedom in defense, yet this is what protects the freedom of the country! Freedom without discipline is like a country without a defense. Discipline protects freedom. They both go hand in hand. Understand this and move ahead in life. You have certain restrictions that allow you your freedom. You can focus either on freedom or discipline, and be happy or unhappy. Fences have a definite place and purpose. If you build a fence all over the entire property, then where will you put your home? Yet a well placed fence protects the property. Love puts you on track. Fear also puts you back on track, as is the case with religions that have put fear as the main motivating force. Nature itself induces fear in a child at a certain age. A child has no fear when very young; he gets 100% love and attention from the mother. But as he grows more independent, nature brings in an iota of fear; he learns to become cautious. With increasing freedom, the child learns to walk more carefully. There is a state of absolute freedom, unlimited bliss, the freedom Advaita* talks about. But the Advaita Knowledge has been totally misused according to people’s fancies and conveniences. We need to be very practical. There must be freedom in the mind, love in the heart, and discipline in action. Fear of losing freedom brings discipline and defense. And the purpose of defense is to eliminate fear. *On this Path, Knowledge is your freedom - and also your defense

Yes. When the mind moves back to the Lila-point, it`s increasing. The more it`s increasing, the more it`s empty. Till it vanishes totally. This is what the jnani-yogi does and he will enter the dark night of the soul. From that point transcendence has to happen, but that`s bliss.

I always have been confused since I was introduced to enlightenment. Why should I work on anything as soon as I am enlightened? Why should I try to self-actualize when I am a state of perfect bliss all the time? When you are enlightened you are totally happy and content all the time. Isn't his everything a human being need? One the other hand you can work hard to self-actualize. And at the end of the process you are totally happy too. So isn't enlightenment and self-actualization the same? Or would someone become self-actualized by getting enlightened, and the other way around?

For me it was like going through 5 stages of loss and grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Once you start this journey, you can't really regress. Just keep going and feeling all the emotions that arise - they are all part of the process. The seeking will suddenly vanish, suddenly be there no more. There will be no more pain, no more suffering... just the peace and the bliss of what is.

Does all this "Namaste, bliss, absolute love, Sri, Baba, jijijijijijiji, beloved master, flowers, blankets", etc. thing not delude people too much? I've watched a lot of his videos and I often saw how people are just trying to parody each other and play as actors before him, just to show how fucking badass blissful and spiritual they are. While the only thing he says is "Do self inquiry, people".

That's interesting! The reason I asked about the void was, Once when I was meditating I experienced pure being. There was just a silent essence of myself. Just floating in infinite silence. Very peacefully. Blissfully. I had a whisper of a thought to totally let go and merge into that blissful silence. Than I disappeared into nothingness. I became non-existent. I only realized that after I returned to that state of pure being and silent bliss. After that experience happened I thought to myself, becoming the void is nothing to be afraid of because you don't exist when it happens. When I referred to other perceptions, I was eluding to perceiving higher realms. I wonder if those higher realms surround us always and we are actually occupying then now. And during sleep we sometimes directly access them. Also when we pass on we go back into the higher realm. From there we chose (as pure being) to come back again to the manifest realm (reincarnation) to work on ourselves and to help others in their journey. It's all or none, so to speak. Have we all decided to be here by choice? Do we all know in our hearts what we truly are, even though we may not be obvious from this point of view (the manifest realm). But everyone here is trying to remember what we truly are. Something bigger is driving all of us on this search. Who knows? Whatever it is it's way beyond the thinking mind.

Hello Friends This is my first time!! expercience with strong determination sitting (sds) English is not my native language, but i read a lot in english and i learn now words/vocabulary every day. Feel free to correct me if you see a mistake! I meditate every day (very few exeptions to be honest) since 8 weeks. Started with mainly breating and mindfulness-meditation lately nothingness-meditation. I already see positive effects. Beeing more calm/balanced, more productive (i did a LOT! of stuff in the last 2 weeks only, seemingly without effort and without forcing myself, i just did it!), less self-hating ^^(yes i told myself sometimes how bad my life is/ or how good it WAS before i srewed up etc...) less complaining and more pro-active behavoir, and i feel im on the right path! Work to do! I just did 80 Minutes of SDS. It was totaly different from what i expected, it started of quite underwhealming for me just to bring me to places where i wasnt able to get to in the last 8 weeks with my other medi-techniques! Now that i did it i can say im glad i did and i will continue with sds every day throughout march. I feel like maybe 10% of this firsttime i can NOT recreate, but 90% of what i expericed can be accuratly be recalled. here and there might be a small chronologic jump. Some of this protocoll is "direct speech" or "flow of consciousness-speech" and some of it i edited into correct sentences.^^ 1. THE START I was sitting on my chair, silent humming of my refridgerator in the other room, i put on a sweater so getting cold wont be a topic/additional distraction, since i expect the partice of sds to be hard from what i read about it. straight back sitting on my chair i close my eyes... after 10sec already ^^ omg! how long am i in this? 10sec maybe? shit! a THOUGHT!!... wait it is ok im alowed to think in this one. but i didnt think a lot i didnt try to think something actively most of the time but it felt comfortable knowing that if i do, it is not a problem. god! this is borring! and also way to easy i just sit here ..so what? how long now? 5minuntes maybe? ...im made for this. this is waaaay too easy slight pain in the back ..maybe a 2 on a scale from 0 to 10. i can ignore it. Thought occurs: probably becasue im a sportive guy i released all my body energy already by doing gym-work and badminton yesterday so my body feels realy calm, maybe those ppl who struggle with "sds" are all overweight americans ^^ (sorry guys!^^) they think it is so hard but actually im way better than them... (ofc you are) how long now? 10minutes maybe? this is so easy what´s the point? should i even go on? couldnt i use my time better? couldnt i use the 80minutes for breathing meditation or nothingness meditation (which i did the last week every day and felt positive about it since i did it even thou i found it extremly hard to do the first times) wouldnt that be a better use of time , maybe im not made for this? WOuldnt it be better to stop now and do something else something "harder" .... pain in the back goes up to 3 ..still i ignore it. OR!! now a different thought occured... since i find it so easy...can i do this even longer than 80minutes ? i could do 5 hours...i can just ignor my timer when it goes of and do it longer they will be so impressed on the forum if i tell them^^ wait isn´t it a realy bad reason to want to impress people? i realized that impressing is kinda important to me and it is no coincidence that i want to do it here in this practice too and this might be my first small realization. I was not thinking: I SHOULD NOT impress or swearing i will never try to impress someone again from now ..but just realizing / narrating to myself objectively that i DO have the tendency to wanting to impress ppl in the last months/years and i felt intuitivly that is not realy something im proud of ^^ and i should keep an eye on that! ..nothing more and norhing less for the moment then my handy rang ..shit! (the first call). who could it be? someone at work, they sometimes call me when they need something i must help them out with, or maybe i forgot something important...nah! maybe my friend is calling asking me if we go bouldering today? but i cant since i hurt my ankle at badminton yesterday... maybe my father is calling? maybe i did something wrong maybe my aunt asking me if i can go buy food for my grandmother? it stopped ringing. it is not imporant right now...i have my free day, i dont have to take calls. i wont die! if i dont take the call.. it is fine! ok back to: this is easy im made for this, then i felt bad : pain in the back increased to 4-5, still no problemo but it is annyoing. leo said it will be worth to do "sds" maybe he doesnt know that im different, that it is too easy for me. if he could see how easy i sit here for like 15minutes now he would recommend me to do "breathing meditation" instead or someting else. ------------- 2. BREAKING UP then my state kinda changed and i cant quite remember / reconstruct how it exactly came to be. i didnt feel a hard change while i was doing it, but recalling it is a bit foggy for me. i know it had something to do with this: for some reason i cant quite remember the cause (althou it is probably secondary) i felt guilty , maybe because i mooved a bit while i shouldnt? and i went like: you piece of shit! you mooved! you failed..you fucking idiot! and i sometimes talk to myself in that way always implying that i dont realy mean it, it is more to motivate me ^^ now i realized that it is not realy helpful if i insult myself for doing something wrong?! also somehow that everytime i realize something, learn something about myself, i feel like there is the old me (not knowing the new thing) and the new me (knowing the new thing) and then the 2 are getting into a kind of micro-fight with each other, who´s the better "I" ...i realized this is fucking tragic! WTF am i doing? i realzied and remembered that i do this on a daily basis never beeing able to see what happens...that 2 mini-egos fight each other over who is the boss! first i felt mooved by this realization ...it wasnt realy crying. just feeling realy mooved by realizing how i get into arguments with myself, beeing able to see how sad this is! 2 tears went from my eyes, 1 right and 1 left. It didnt feel like crying, just like water is coming out of my eye. both waterdrops went down my face to my mouth and the right one was bigger i guess and went further to my chin. i felt something changed, i knew this place where i am now. i realzied that i have so many unrealsitic ideas about getting enlightend or the way i can change throu meditation, i can become this new "super human" kind of guy almost godlike ^^ in a way , my goals are actually ridicoulous i realized now, it will make "click" and im perfect i will understand everything and be happy for all the time ^^ i know and i knew of course: that cant be achieved it is just a child fantasy but at the same time a part of me still wants that or wanted that, i also cant exclude that the wish wont appear ever again , it probably will but next time it comes i can see it from another persepective. because now that i have seen what it ACTUALLY means to learn something about myself, to starting to know myself better, i realized what i can actually get from meditation and how it is so much more worth to me than beeing perfect and happy all the time or even like beeing a super-alfa-male 24/7 ^^ i thought about how tragic humans are, how most of them try their best to be happy (like me) but they only cause pain in themself and others cause they dont know what they do and what they are. the difference between the human intention to do good and actualy doing harm without knowing made me cry. it was too much at that point. it seemed so sad, so heartbreakingly tragic that all those peolpe realy honestly want to be happy but they all fail cause they dont understand shit ^^ 2 more tears go down my face... (now comes a part which does not! represent any political standpoint on the question of how to treat criminals, but it is rather an experience in empathy and seemingly understand the suffering of a psychopath/murderer) the topic about why people do bad things without knowing it took me to the question about criminals. why do some people kill others. why do some people become insane killers. are those people realy evil, or are they just completly diconnected from their own inner life from their emotions. what is wrong with them? of course i want them to be locked away and in prison but also i thought maybe they are helpless. what kind of pain must have been inflicted on them in order to create such personalites that can´t feel for others anymore that are completly numb. i saw those killers as childern and feeling sorry for them getting beaten in fact i thought: how dare i - how ignorant of their suffering do i have to be to judge those people i have no idea what they went throu!! start crying again this time with opened mouth , couldnt keep it closed , felt like caughing in an emotional way realized i should return to my pratice to not moove now but it is fine i mooved affectivly couldnt stop it now return to pratice... i thoght this year had already had 8 weeks and in this last 10minutes i had more meaningfull personal realizations about myself and the world than in the last 8 weeks. even thou i did my routin, 1 hour meditation , breating medi, body scan sometimes, nothingness medi the last week which realy felt like stepping it up for me, but i usualy had only positiv feelings, i smiled i had moments of joy even bliss in the meditation, i even had moment where i went: oooh! THAT`S WHO i am , or Ohhh! right im not that (rather abstractions/ feelings almost autosuggestive realizations) also i faced fear (in one of my first meditations in january i had the sense that someone stands behind me and wants to murder me ^^ i sat though that and made me face it ..it never came back or only in a softer form and then it went away) i never had concrete realizations about myself, what EXACTLY almost scientificaly it is that i am, what i do, how i behave. this time i had that and it made me cry i felt that having an epiphany that makes you cry because your realze how wrong and almost tragic your behaviour is worth more than smiling or feeling bliss... then again i realized that there is probably a time for each of them i wouldnt want only crying all the time ^^ but for now im realy glad i could get those insights! ------------------ 3. CALMING DOWN / JOY i hoped i can recall everything or maybe the most important things for people to read beacuase i also enjoy reading such protocols by others to kinda see what they saw. also i realized that by beeing prepared to narrate my experience it made the experience more clear for me. it reminded me of this psycho-therapy technique of just narrating what happend without judging, just objective desciption of events. i feel i was able to do this for the most part in the last 15minutes of this sds. i wished for it to end now and i felt like i realy enjoy it. i thoguht ok it was enough now. i have to write it down and let it breathe take a break now. OR! maybe i could go even deeper now...but there is still time the next weeks i will do this daily. so no hurry! i felt realy relaxed now, my back pain had completely gone and instead i felt warm and unified like ... you may laugh now: i felt like a banana it must sound horrible but it was realy funny and i had to laugh myself when i tried to explain to myself how i feel now and i came up with the banana comparison ^^ my body feeling was good i felt like one huge slightly rounded thing beeing whole. i felt like i expanded. i could still feel my body borders as a silouette but i was also in the whole room filling it up, it was realy nice! i felt refreshed and i enjoyed it. ----------------------- 4. LAST MINUTES / WORK TO DO... one time at the end maybe 5-10 minutes before the alarm went of i licked my lips and i thought ..awww np i wont tell them! wait what? im going to lie about stupid shit like that just to make me look better ^^ LOL i had to chuckle this is ridicoulous ..did i actualy just thought about lying , trying to make me look better even i realized earlyier in the sds that i shouldnt do that. that i should try to impress people. here i also had to smiled and realize it will take MORE! than only realizing things to stop bad habits in myself, bad habits have a momentum they are automatic almost and i have to be aware of them and stop them everytime they will occur in the next weeks/month. then i went nah ok...ofc i will tell becasue if i lie that makes me feel bad.. then i realized not lying just because you feel bad is also not a realy good reason isnt it? but i couldnt think of a better reason right now and i felt no urge to do so since im mainly supposed to sit still in this technique. then the second call came... i thought np. i wont answer it is fine... it stoped 1minute later the alarm went of. i did it! 80 something minutes... i waited the alarm to stop /wanted to do bonus time for some reason and then when it stopped i breathed sometimes in and out streched my back, and then started to open my eyes...eyelashes beeing glued together by dried tears ^^ i felt fine. i want to write down everything...here i am!

I sometimes awaken at night and there is a conversation about enlightenment that was happening while I was asleep. I wake to just the tail end of the conversation and only get the last few words of it. I lay there and think to myself, "I wish I could of heard the whole conversation"! Also "who was I having the conversation with?" Last night I woke to a voice saying "that's because there is bliss on the inside, and junk on the outside". Weird ! But it happens often. Other times I know there was a conversation going on, but I have no idea what was said. Not consciously anyway. Does anybody else experience any thing like that? Maybe that's common?

it still is an experience within the experiencing of bliss....

For me enlightenment is experiencing who you really are. In essence. You become pure light and pure love. It is also the transformation process that comes after. Nirvana or paradise is the bliss, the ecstasy, the state of mind, the realization and the peace that you get and stays with you every single day of your life after enlightenment.

Nirvana is when everything drops away imo. Even the "I am"-consciousness with all it's qualities and states, be it love, bliss, pure consciousness, emptiness, unity, oneness, god or anything like that. My search is not over to be honest, but I have had enough experiences to know that different states in the realm of "I am"-consciousness is not Nirvana, however divine, heavenly or blissful it might seem or how "that's it!" or euphoric you feel. But I might also be wrong. Maybe even very wrong.

It is said you will be scared because the ego doesn't want to die and makes you feel this way. I still feel it is a legitimate question to ask why you would want to undergo death of ego in the first place. Of course no enlightened person looks back and says they regret doing it; they can't because they no longer identify with what they once were, nor even know who they are afterwards. It no longer appears to matter. However, the fact that they can no longer see the world as they once did means that something is lost, and, in bliss, this fact they cannot appreciate.

Following are words of UG. 1.To be yourself is the easiest thing. And you don't want to be in your state. You'd rather be somebody else, imitate the life of somebody else. That's your problem. To be yourself doesn't need any time at all. But you talk of timelessness, which is a mockery. To be yourself, do you need time? To be a good man, to be a marvelously religious man, to be in a state of peace, to be in a state bliss, naturally you need time. That will always be tomorrow. When tomorrow arrives, you say, "All right, day after tomorrow." That is time. [I am] Not [talking about] this metaphysical or philosophical thing. I am not talking about metaphysical time and timeless. There is no such thing as the timeless. 2.What takes you away from your state is this movement in the direction of wanting to be in some state other than yourself. To be yourself doesn't need time. If I am a village idiot, I remain a village idiot. Finish. I don't want to be an intelligent man. Even if my neighbor takes advantage of his extraordinary intelligence and exploits [me], good luck. What can I do? To accept the reality, this is the reality of the world. There is no other world. There is no other reality, ultimate reality. This is the only reality. You have to function in this world. You can't run away from this world. How can you run away from this world? Because you are that world. Where you can you go? Hide yourself in a cave? Yes, you are taking your thoughts wherever you go. You cannot run away from your shadow. It's there all the time. So, you can't do a thing about thought. That's all that I am saying. When you realize the absurdity of all your effort to do something about the thought -- it's creating the problem; it's misery for you; you can't do anything -- when you can't do anything, when you realize that you can't do a thing about it, it's not there. You are not using it [thought] as a means to get something for you. 3.I want to say this again. You desire. If you do not want anything, there is no thought at all. You understand? Wanting is thinking, it doesn't matter what you want -- want self-realization, want God-realization -- you want anything, that means you have to use this instrument. These are not your thoughts, these are not your feelings. You may not like it. They belong to somebody else. You want to make them your own. You have unfortunately made them your own. That's why you ask all these questions. Why do you ask all these questions? These questions have been put before to so many people -- all the sages, saints and saviors of mankind, the holy men dead and alive. They are all ready to answer. They have composed a lot of lullabies. You go and listen to them and go to sleep, if you want to. That's what you are interested in. You want somebody else to pat on your back and say, "Oh, fine, just fine, you are doing very well. Do more and more of the same and you will reach the destination you want to arrive at." 4.You want comfort. You want affection from the person you are living with. You want this, that and the other. But what you want to get -- the GET of all the 'gets' -- you are not going to. That [what you want to get] is in relationship with your enlightenment, your freedom, transformation and all that kind of thing. There is nothing to get from me or from anybody. You want to be at peace with yourself. You will not get anything from anybody. All this is disturbing the peace that is already there. Your idea of peace is altogether different. 5.Because there is a constant demand on your part to experience everything that you look at, everything that you are feeling inside. If you don't do that, 'you' as you know yourself and as you experience yourself is coming to an end. That is a frightening thing. You don't want to come to an end; you want continuity. All the spiritual pursuits are in the direction of strengthening that continuity. So, all your experiences, all your meditations, all your sadhana -- all that you do is strengthening the 'self'. They are selfcentered activities. Whatever you do to be free from the 'self' is also a selfcentered activity. The process you adopt to attain what you call 'being' is also a 'becoming' process. So, there is no such thing as 'being'. Anything you do -any movement, in any direction, on any level -- is a becoming process.

Some benefits of Enlightenment: you feel complete, there is no lack, you're lacking no-thing it's not that you have no goals or desires, but those are not comming from a sense of lack, and as you are already complete and "nourished", you do not clinge to the outcome of your doings. you follow your basic nature, you know your core-signature and know if you deviate from your center. This enables you to come back home whenever you want. as you are already nourished, you do not accumulate stuff that is of no importance to your unique nature. The easiest way to enlightenment is to acknowledge the fact that you do not lack anything. Everything is already perfect. All the imprefections are mere labels on top of your experience. See through the illusions you projected and/or have agreed upon. When your mindfulness is such that you no longer have any urge to give meaning to stuff, pull-in experiences from the past or fears about the future and project them on top of what is there, you're home. Once there, you will have your point of reference, your unique signature. Don't try to reach enlightenment from a lack of enlightenment. Theorethically speaking, you're always enlightened, or, more precisly, your basic nature is always there. The clouds of imperfections are darkening your light. Therefore, before you reach your light for the first time, you work from the bottom to top, knock-knock, you knock on the door. Once there, you have a new outlook, an enlightened view on your existence and can now pervade differently. You will still have "work to do" to maintain your new found, centered "position". This will be your journey of enlightenment, as your first enlightenment was only a glimpse at how beautiful existence actually is. Bon voyage! Never beat your self up for not being enlightened. You are. If only you stop producing the lack of it. As an anecdote: the snake came to Eve in the Paradise and said she should eat from the tree of which God said, if they eat from it, they would die. But the snake told Eve, that if she eats from it, she would be able, like God, to differentiate Good and Evil (labels). They eat from it, and ever since suffered from the use of labels. They've been already perfect, perfect life. The lack was promoted by the snake and Eve and later Adam did buy it. They were told that God is better than them and wants to prevent them from being as potent as He is. Well, that makes for a beautiful lack, doesn't it? Don't buy it. If you've found your nature (which is connected to all there is), there is no lack anymore. You may want to upgrade your surroundings, but you won't clinge to it as if your existence and bliss would depend on it. The whole existence becomes a part of you and you a part of the whole existence, abundance all around and perfection in all there is. No lack. Nothing is not-done. Snakes that come your way are gently handled. You know where you go if you go. Nothing is missing. Your longing for others to see how you see arises. You learn that they have their own, unique signature and that they will approach exisistence in their own fashion. And also this is perfectly fine, as it only extends the infinity of all there is. You will still play. You will still entangle yourself with games. But it will be from a different perspective. And you will know how to come back home. ~ Chris

@WelcometoRealitySeparate what is true and what is not.. Your awakening was true, a beautiful deep experience and realization. That is true. Give yourself credit for that. These experiences are so profound and so amazing that it is easy to fall in the trap of trying to hold on to them. You try to hold on to that certain state of mind. Its kind of natural. Dont feel bad for that. What you have to accept and understand is that everything in this universe is subject to change incuding your emotional state. Thats just the way it is. Trying to hold on to anything is just a form of resistance. Enlightenment is not about staying all the time in some magical, neverending, high state of bliss. It is about being ok ( accepting) the fact that your state of mind will fluctuate. I hope this helps..

1. Become self-actualized 2. Discover my deepest passions and my life purpose 3. Master creative writing 4. Re-capture a childhood experience 5. Travel the world 6. Have intimate and deep friendships. Make best friends with artists, comedians, creative writers, theater lovers, bibliophiles, cinephiles, and self-actualized people. I want my best friend to be a free spirit who loves life and who is just as passionate as I am. 7. Be in a constant state of happiness. Not just temporary happiness but a deep feeling of bliss and enthusiasm 8. Live a single and child-free lifestyle so I can be free and pursue my passions 9. Live abroad in Mexico or Thailand or somewhere tropical 10. Help people master their creativity and discover what makes them unique

I see living consciously as a heightened awareness. Being aware of yourself, your thought and actions, motive. What drives you and makes you tick at any moment in time. And not just you, but the world and other people. I have an analogy for this: The car and and driver. The driver get in to the car and drives from a to b. The car serves a purpose, it provides a means and a function. The drive doesn't care how it works. He isn't even aware of it. He doesn't give it a second thought. Just does what he was taught to do to get it to operate in the way he needs to get from a to b. They don't recognise when something ins't quite right, what that noise was, why it felt odd, what needs servicing and when. When they hit some ice they don't know what is happening, why the car moves as it does and how to control it. They are unaware of the limitations of the machine and their own abilities. But imagine that someone studies engineering. They took cars apart and rebuilt them. They knew how they worked, intimately. When they get in and drive they know in their mind everything that is going on. Every sound, every vibration, feeling, They know how to interpret every motion and respond to it so if they drive over ice they can maintain control because they can 'feel' exactly what is happening. When something breaks, they know how to recognise it and fix it. When they hear that tell-tale sound they can repair the fault before it breaks down. They know how to drive efficiently and causing minimum wear to the machine. They know the limitations. The simple driver lives in ignorant, naive bliss. But as a consequence they are unaware of so much and on occasion that will come back to bite them. The engineer is totally connectied to the car, is aware of everything that is going on. He can respond to problems more effectively and consciously. It is the same with living consciously. The conscious person is more aware of the mechanics of their own mind and the world around them. Living uncosciously is a bit like operating on 'autopilot'. Being a passenger. Where as conscious people aren't the passenger. They are the pilot.

Maan, I love your post. You have just summed up my first strong determination sittings. You're doing great. You probably have just purged the amount of shit you would've with 3 months of normal "bliss" meditation. Look the next days for some silence and peace in your head. Maybe you'll find some. But, if you want to make this a habit (what I can really recommend) I'd definitely say you start off a little slower. Cut back some minutes, maybe go with 30-60 minutes at first and sit this through for a few dozen times. What will happen is if you do that you will be in complete peace and silence after you've transcended this time span. Then maybe go a little bit on. Cheers to you, can you see how this could be the fastest way of waking up? It just rips everything out of you, throws it in your face and lets it crash onto the floor. That is real progress.

Yeah. Totally true. People just switch their vocabulary but underderlying is the same structure. It is possible with every concept, also the "neti neti" approach. "Everything is illusion", "i am the whitness", "i am", "nothingness", "emptiness", "unity", "Self", "no self", "here and now", "love", "bliss", "be still", "you are that"... Different traditions have different words and concepts which can be taught to a parrot which doesn't render him awake. Even though "he is also the one". Of course. "Have you read the bible?" today is like "Have you read 'I am That'?". And "have you heard of Jesus?" now is almost like "have you heard of Ramana?". Expressions and pointers of truth can quickly become just concepts if not spoken from truth. But they all can be amazing pointers if they are spoken from truth.

@Makkatya back to the original question : Can one love unconditionally without being enlightened? don't wait till you think you're enlightened (it still be an other conceptual thing for the mind before you really experiment it) every step you go with somebody overcoming old fears and leaving them aside is liberating, is on the way to unconditional love.. Being conscientiously totally exposed to what ever emerges and embracing it without any fear, would be the ultimate. But again every step you go in this direction is a bliss

we are not here to judge enlightenment through our logical minds. as Leo always said enlightenment cannot be communicated,.. you should experience it in order to know the actual bliss.