This Is My Definition of Enlightenment

[Cathy92506]

1 hour ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

Emotional reaction - as opposed to feeling, which normally has the story attached - can be instinctual ie survival based. Faster than thought. Keeps you safe. You feel the fear of the lion and it generates energy to move. 

In the example - feeling anger because someone cuts you off while driving - the anger is arising because of the story 'they cut me off'. An adult might feel angry. 

If a child were walking, and another child walked in front of them - they don't get angry. There is 'oh an obstacle in front (another kid) '. In a similar way, animals do not get angry when another animal moves in front. But the do experience anger/agitation as a survival mechanism.

The adult in this scenario is reacting to the story. If the adult had no story it would just be 'someone cut in'. Not 'someone cut me off', which inserts their narrative in.

So in some instances the story is generating all the emotion. In others, like the lion, survival is the instant generator and powerful protector that requires no story. In some cases the initial reaction doesnt happen. But more often than not in non-identifiction the emotion happens, without it becoming a feeling (where the story, or perception) comes in. This gives you breathing room to respond and not react. 

Important to note though, not all emotions are created equal 😁

 

That helps clarify it a lot.

So it sounds like the difference isn’t that nothing arises, but that it doesn’t turn into a story or linger in the same way. It sounds like we’re pointing to the same thing, just describing it a bit differently.

[GodisOne]

1 hour ago, Cathy92506 said:

That helps clarify it a lot.

So it sounds like the difference isn’t that nothing arises, but that it doesn’t turn into a story or linger in the same way. It sounds like we’re pointing to the same thing, just describing it a bit differently.

"we’re pointing to the same thing"

Both of you are pointing to the same something that has nothing to do with enlightenment or nonduality. The illusion is so seductive it keeps the mind enchanted with states of non-aging, such as the one you're describing where the brain doesn't grow out of its childhood innocence. In fact there are many experiments now being done to prevent aging in the brain. And what is the most seductive characteristic of heaven, if not the fact that we don't age there, therefore remain in the constant state of childhood bliss. With such possibilities, why would anyone care about finding the end of the illusion? The issue is that it is only when the soul matures enough that it realizes that no state or condition is perfect--there will always be some flaw, something missing.

Then the question of how arises. But there is no how or why to the Timeless. Any action doesn't bring you any closer to or farther away from the Absolute, because all there is is the Absolute.

Edited 3 hours ago by GodisOne