Is The Point Of Self Inquiry Convincing Myself Im Not What I Think I Am Till Enlightenment?

[ajasatya]

2 hours ago, Ilya said:

@ajasatya the problem is that i am a newbie, im only about a month into the practice.

in conclusion, what i should do for now is to increase uncertainty about who i am by that cycle of mindful questioning, making myself not sure who i am more and more and enlightenment will occur?

no "enlightenment" will ever occur. train your mind to be present. join a zen sangha if you need help with practice consistency.

[Viking]

@ajasatya so the combination of removing my ego, implementing it in everyday life and mindfulness in everyday life will result in elevated consciousness?

I think yeah, enlightenment is already occuring but stuff around that like the cosmic joke and stuff can occur.

[ajasatya]

1 minute ago, Ilya said:

elevated consciousness

drop it. you ain't going nowhere. you're not becoming more special. we're just random dudes.

take this with you: enlightenment is a 24/7 mindfulness training. you're not becoming better than anyone else. you're simply becoming healthier than you've ever been.

if you ask thich nhat hanh, he'll say that he's still training, even though he's like 90 years old and probably about to die. dogen zenji also said that practice and realization are the same. i recommend that you spend the next 6 months practicing with these teachings and see how it feels.

if you want enlightenment, just practice day after day, minute after minute, instant after instant. it's a lifetime commitment to mindfulness practice.

[Viking]

@ajasatya sure  this whole thread you misunderstood most of the stuff i said, all i wanted was to be more clear as to what i have to do, thanks

[Joseph Maynor]

On 8/11/2017 at 5:24 PM, Ilya said:

@Nahm is there a point to contemplating what i am? shouldnt i just strip all of my beliefs and simply increase the state of uncertainty and what i am will simply come?

@Joseph Maynor how do i stumble upon these beliefs to get rid of them?

Mindfulness of beliefs and Self-inquiry.  Start to notice your beliefs and start to notice the stories they tell.  Then start to notice how you cling to these beliefs as if they are true.  You cling to these beliefs too tightly.  Notice when you connect beliefs to an identity -- to a me.  Become more mindful of your thoughts in general.  Beliefs are a type of thought that you take to be true about you or the world or reality.  

I find enlightenment work to be, not entirely but a big chunk of it, becoming more mindful of beliefs that we cling to.  We don't even realize all the thought-stories we cling to.  And stories are fine, if there's a reason in a moment to cling to them and then release them.  Our problem is that there are many beliefs/stories that we cling to all the time -- without sensitivity to utility or benefit in a moment.  That's where we snare ourselves with beliefs.  We are not mindful enough, in general, about how we treat thought in our lives, and we are not mindful about how we should treat thought in our lives.  

So we gotta investigate these issues in our lives.  And that's one road to enlightenment.  Thought is a tricky thing because it doesn't exist out in the world, so we are half-confused by thought.  And we stunt our lives by limiting ourselves with our own thought-stories.  We hold ourselves back -- It's a travesty what we do to our true life-potential based on our confusion about how to manage thought-stories in our lives.  

This is why doing personal development work is mandatory work if you wanna live to your fullest-potential in life.  To do what makes you proudest in your heart-core -- to gift the fruit of your unique path to the world that only you could give, that only your path alone could rightly yield -- the soul-stamp of one individual.  Bad beliefs stand in the way of this dream, your dream-life.  So you gotta go on a journey to nip this problem in the bud so it doesn't railroad your dream-life.

Edited August 13, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Nahm]

@Loreena the one that you are