You are not really awake u til you experience yourself as Infinite Love/God

[Zeroguy]

Everything else is Just your mind talking. 

[Cathy92506]

I guess it depends on what you believe "awakening" means. For me, it's "Before Enlightenment: Chop Wood, Carry Water." After Enlightenment: Chop Wood, Carry Water." IT'S NOT: After Enlightenment: Chop wood, 40 minutes daily meditation, 40 minutes yoga, 40 minutes gratitude (etc.), and carry water. The difference isn't in the "mind chatter" but the state of consciousness. It's the ease and effortlessness of letting go of whatever emotional rabbit hole one is in and leaving it all behind and going on with one's day. So a person can have "mind chatter" all day long and still be awakened.

[Ishanga]

I have a scale, 0-10, 0 is Peace, 10 is Ecstasy, Bliss is 9, Bliss can be said to be the feeling of Infinite Love or God.. All of this is just a matter of Intensity of Experience..

Below 0 is Depression, Anger, Bitterness, Anxiety, Stress... One of not even capable of Spiritual Pursuits if they are below 0 on the scale, it very very hard to go from a Suffering state to an Enlightened State, its possible but very hard..

So the first step is to get to 0, which means Your Peaceful naturally, no need for outside stimuli to make You Peaceful or Happy/Joyful, get to that point and I think everything else will happen allot more naturally and smoothly! 

[James123]

@Zeroguy not "not awake". But, "not aware".

[UnbornTao]

1 hour ago, Cathy92506 said:

I guess it depends on what you believe "awakening" means. For me, it's "Before Enlightenment: Chop Wood, Carry Water." After Enlightenment: Chop Wood, Carry Water." IT'S NOT: After Enlightenment: Chop wood, 40 minutes daily meditation, 40 minutes yoga, 40 minutes gratitude (etc.), and carry water. The difference isn't in the "mind chatter" but the state of consciousness. It's the ease and effortlessness of letting go of whatever emotional rabbit hole one is in and leaving it all behind and going on with one's day. So a person can have "mind chatter" all day long and still be awakened.

Nice.

What would you say X and Y mean?

[Cathy92506]

1 hour ago, UnbornTao said:

Nice.

What would you say X and Y mean?

This is my view.
Before Enlightenment
I'm playing Monopoly and I lose. I'm all upset and angry. I'm experiencing the full spectrum of human emotion. I'm completely lost in them. When the game is over, I get up and leave, but I'm still angry that I lost. This feeling is added to the already crap I'm hanging onto.

After Enlightenment
I'm playing Monopoly and I lose. I'm all upset and angry. I'm experiencing the full spectrum of human emotion. I'm completely lost in them. When the game is over, I get up and leave, but I leave behind all that emotion.

Whether one is unawakened or awakened, we all have thoughts and go down emotional rabbit holes. This is only being human. We can't avoid it. The difference is that the awakened person easily and effortlessly lets go of all that emotion.

By the way, I believe that a person who is awakened is just a spiritual fantasy.
Instead, we are "awakening."
 

[Breakingthewall]

33 minutes ago, Cathy92506 said:

After Enlightenment
I'm playing Monopoly and I lose. I'm all upset and angry. I'm experiencing the full spectrum of human emotion. I'm completely lost in them. When the game is over, I get up and leave, but I leave behind all that emotion.

For me awakening or how you want to call is really perceive yourself unlimited, and perceive always the total openess that reality is. But if I am in something serious, I focus myself so much that i suffer and suffer. I learned to trust the flow, but anyway, if problems come my mind is like pressure cooker, and I know this is something positive, as it makes me give it my all.

Without suffering, there is no glory. That thing about the end of suffering means negation of a facet of reality ; humans are suffering machines, that's life. If life tells you: suffer, you will suffer. That's what the flow of reality will be like. At least I see it like that. Suffering is the fire for the metamorphosis, for the breaking of barriers that opens new dimensions. 

Some people think: I'm enlightened, there is no more dimensions to open, it's the end of suffering. I think that reality doesn't work in that way. There are no limits, always is going to happen a new birth, a deeper way of existing, and suffering should be welcome as a the crucible that forges new structures capable of greater breadth

[UnbornTao]

Why do I get the sense that quite a few new users on the site are bots or trolls?

@Cathy92506

Not to sound like a jerk, but did you read my question? It was deliberately nonsensical. 

If you aren't a troll, I'm very sorry to bother you.

Edited 22 hours ago by UnbornTao

[Inliytened1]

4 hours ago, Cathy92506 said:

This is my view.
Before Enlightenment
I'm playing Monopoly and I lose. I'm all upset and angry. I'm experiencing the full spectrum of human emotion. I'm completely lost in them. When the game is over, I get up and leave, but I'm still angry that I lost. This feeling is added to the already crap I'm hanging onto.

After Enlightenment
I'm playing Monopoly and I lose. I'm all upset and angry. I'm experiencing the full spectrum of human emotion. I'm completely lost in them. When the game is over, I get up and leave, but I leave behind all that emotion.

Whether one is unawakened or awakened, we all have thoughts and go down emotional rabbit holes. This is only being human. We can't avoid it. The difference is that the awakened person easily and effortlessly lets go of all that emotion.

."
 

You nailed it...  And why do you think the awakened one can easily leave it all behind?

[Joshe]

1 hour ago, Inliytened1 said:

You nailed it...  And why do you think the awakened one can easily leave it all behind?

I taught myself this level of emotional control at 15. I was heart-broken by my first trophy of a girlfriend breaking up with me. I was devastated, in fetal position for 3 days trying to get out of the suffering. Eventually figured out I have control over my emotions. It was a matter of realizing I didn’t have to keep them alive. Then, remembering that each time a situation came up. Over time, it gets easier and easier. 

I can leave it all behind because I can choose to. This doesn’t seem like very advanced stuff from my perspective. I get that most people aren’t metacognitive, but if you are, it doesn’t seem like next-level stuff. I remember telling my sister, “stop letting it bother you”, and she’d be like “people aren’t like that, Josh”, and I’d b like, “ you can be”. Lol. 

Anyway, I don’t know exactly what enlightenment is, but I always assumed it’s way more than metacognition + emotional control. 

Edited 17 hours ago by Joshe

[Hojo]

@JosheIts like seeing that life is so intelligent that it came up with a way to not die, by somehow creating an entirely different dimension of reality over-layed over the current 3D reality. But reversed in the sense that it had already done that and,life had just made a lie to deceive itself into believing the dimension wansnt there to begin with. Thats why its so funny.

Edited 18 hours ago by Hojo

[Cathy92506]

12 hours ago, Breakingthewall said:

Some people think: I'm enlightened, there is no more dimensions to open, it's the end of suffering. I think that reality doesn't work in that way. There are no limits, always is going to happen a new birth, a deeper way of existing, and suffering should be welcome as a the crucible that forges new structures capable of greater breadth

Yes, you've hit on something really important here - there's definitely no end to how deep this can go. I remember reading where Tolle talks about presence not being some final destination you reach, but more like... well, it just keeps opening up, doesn't it? There's always another layer to discover.

And honestly, the whole "I'm enlightened now" thing has always struck me as missing the point entirely. It's like the ego's ultimate trophy - "Look what I achieved!" But if consciousness is truly limitless, then how could there ever be a finish line?

[Cathy92506]

8 hours ago, Inliytened1 said:

You nailed it...  And why do you think the awakened one can easily leave it all behind?

I guess the "awakening" person practices it over and over. He may go down an emotional rabbit hole and when he snaps out of it the intense emotion lingers on. The "awakening" person would notice this and become puzzled? Why am I hanging on to this anger? Why am I identifying with it? All those other times I didn't. What I do is I write it down and process it. There is a reason it's "sticking." I learn and grow. One just gets good at doing it. I think that the "awakened" person is a spiritual fantasy. We are "awakening."

[Cathy92506]

8 hours ago, Joshe said:

I taught myself this level of emotional control at 15. I was heart-broken by my first trophy of a girlfriend breaking up with me. I was devastated, in fetal position for 3 days trying to get out of the suffering. Eventually figured out I have control over my emotions. It was a matter of realizing I didn’t have to keep them alive. Then, remembering that each time a situation came up. Over time, it gets easier and easier. 

I can leave it all behind because I can choose to. This doesn’t seem like very advanced stuff from my perspective. I get that most people aren’t metacognitive, but if you are, it doesn’t seem like next-level stuff. I remember telling my sister, “stop letting it bother you”, and she’d be like “people aren’t like that, Josh”, and I’d b like, “ you can be”. Lol. 

Anyway, I don’t know exactly what enlightenment is, but I always assumed it’s way more than metacognition + emotional control. 

I believe what you just described is a person who is awakening. There is no "spiritual jumbo gumbo" or lofty explanations. you are just "being."

[James123]

17 hours ago, Cathy92506 said:

So a person can have "mind chatter" all day long and still be awakened.

What if, if never chatters?

[Cathy92506]

38 minutes ago, James123 said:

What if, if never chatters?

My take on this is that the mind is constantly producing thoughts. Our mind continually chatters. Awakening doesn't mean we are mindless zombies. 

It seems to me that one of the biggest misconceptions about awakening is the idea that people who are awakening somehow have silent minds all the time.

We can do practices that help quiet the mind, though, but this isn't a prerequisite to the awakening process.
 

[James123]

15 minutes ago, Cathy92506 said:

My take on this is that the mind is constantly producing thoughts. Our mind continually chatters. Awakening doesn't mean we are mindless zombies. 

It seems to me that one of the biggest misconceptions about awakening is the idea that people who are awakening somehow have silent minds all the time.

We can do practices that help quiet the mind, though, but this isn't a prerequisite to the awakening process.
 

You are right. The idea that an awakened mind is always silent is a false image, an ideal born of thought.

However, The observer and the observed are not separate, they are the same movement.

And when one recognize this, deeply, not intellectually, the division ends.

In that ending, the mind is still and silent.

And in that silence, Truth, which is nameless, timeless,  comes.

One does not seek it. It comes when the mind is utterly quiet.

Then, the absolute speaks not as words, but in the language of silence.

The Moment.

Naturally, Effortlessly.

[Razard86]

14 hours ago, Joshe said:

I taught myself this level of emotional control at 15. I was heart-broken by my first trophy of a girlfriend breaking up with me. I was devastated, in fetal position for 3 days trying to get out of the suffering. Eventually figured out I have control over my emotions. It was a matter of realizing I didn’t have to keep them alive. Then, remembering that each time a situation came up. Over time, it gets easier and easier. 

I can leave it all behind because I can choose to. This doesn’t seem like very advanced stuff from my perspective. I get that most people aren’t metacognitive, but if you are, it doesn’t seem like next-level stuff. I remember telling my sister, “stop letting it bother you”, and she’d be like “people aren’t like that, Josh”, and I’d b like, “ you can be”. Lol. 

Anyway, I don’t know exactly what enlightenment is, but I always assumed it’s way more than metacognition + emotional control. 

Enlightenment, classic enlightenment is just the realization that the individual self is just a construction and that your true self is no self. Basically you are nothing and are just creating an identity on the fly in the present moment using your mind. It also ties into impermanence and how whatever you identify with never lasts and everything about you is always changing.

Edited 4 hours ago by Razard86

[James123]

23 minutes ago, Razard86 said:

The true goal of Spiritual Work is God Realization.

How on "realize" the god, meanwhile God is all there is? Even word of realize is God, therefore, realization is self action. Therefore, God can not be realized. Only Be.

[Inliytened1]

5 hours ago, Cathy92506 said:

I guess the "awakening" person practices it over and over. He may go down an emotional rabbit hole and when he snaps out of it the intense emotion lingers on. The "awakening" person would notice this and become puzzled? Why am I hanging on to this anger? Why am I identifying with it? All those other times I didn't. What I do is I write it down and process it. There is a reason it's "sticking." I learn and grow. One just gets good at doing it. I think that the "awakened" person is a spiritual fantasy. We are "awakening."

Well..i would say the biggest reason is he or she has already died..their self has died and they have become the Infinite Self.  So the trials and tribulations of the self become very small in comparison.  They are known to be part of the grand illusion which has all now been revealed as a majestic game.  The gig is up..  Thus there is no point in getting torn up about things that have suddenly become so trivial in the grand scheme of things.  It is the liberation from the self.

Edited 5 hours ago by Inliytened1