When you are enlightened - Do "you" remember "who" "you" once were?

[blazed]

I don't know how one can be "enlightened" when one is unconscious.

Ask yourself would your "higher self" or "ideal version" of you be spending time arguing on forums consistently, everyday, nearly every thread?

If you answer yes then I suggest you come up with a better ideal version of yourself and not settle for something so petty.

If you answer no, then you're unconcious and at this moment not run by the higher self but the ego mind of ranting, explaining, justifying, counter-aruging, all the things that the ego thrives and ends up controlling the moment.

It's ok to have 1 bad day off and go on a rant, but seriously the same people doing it all the time, that is a mental illness, you're addicted to arguing. Neuroplasticity, repeat something enough times you'll get addicted to it, making it a habit.

Edited June 20, 2018 by blazed

[White]

3 hours ago, blazed said:

I don't know how one can be "enlightened" when one is unconscious.

Ask yourself would your "higher self" or "ideal version" of you be spending time arguing on forums consistently, everyday, nearly every thread?

If you answer no, then you're unconcious and at this moment not run by the higher self but the ego mind of ranting, explaining, justifying, counter-aruging, all the things that the ego thrives and ends up controlling the moment.

It's ok to have 1 bad day off and go on a rant, but seriously the same people doing it all the time, that is a mental illness, you're addicted to arguing.

The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously identify with it. It can then rise up, take you over, “become you,” and live through you. It needs to get its “food” through you. It will feed on any experience that resonates with its own kind of energy, anything that creates further pain in whatever form: anger, destructiveness, hatred, grief, emotional drama, violence, and even illness.

So the pain-body, when it has taken you over, will create a situation in your life that reflects back its own energy frequency for it to feed on. Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible. 

Once the pain-body has taken you over, you want more pain. You become a victim or a perpetrator. You want to inflict pain, or you want to suffer pain, or both. There isn’t really much difference between the two. You are not conscious of this, of course, and will vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others. If you were truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve, for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane. 

The pain-body, which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually afraid of the light of your consciousness. It is afraid of being found out. Its survival depends on your unconscious identification with it, as well as on your unconscious fear of facing the pain that lives in you. But if you don’t face it, if you don’t bring the light of your consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again. The pain-body may seem to you like a dangerous monster that you cannot bear to look at, but I assure you that it is an insubstantial phantom that cannot prevail against the power of your presence. 

Some spiritual teachings state that all pain is ultimately an illusion, and this is true. The question is: Is it true for you? A mere belief doesn’t make it true. Do you want to experience pain for the rest of your life and keep saying that it is an illusion? Does that free you from the pain? What we are concerned with here is how you can realize this truth — that is, make it real in your own experience. 

So the pain-body doesn’t want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. The moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher dimension of consciousness has come in. I call it presence. You are now the witness or the watcher of the pain-body. This means that it cannot use you anymore by pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish itself through you. You have found your own innermost strength. You have accessed the power of Now

Source: New World Library 

[blazed]

43 minutes ago, White said:

The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously identify with it. It can then rise up, take you over, “become you,” and live through you. It needs to get its “food” through you. It will feed on any experience that resonates with its own kind of energy, anything that creates further pain in whatever form: anger, destructiveness, hatred, grief, emotional drama, violence, and even illness.

So the pain-body, when it has taken you over, will create a situation in your life that reflects back its own energy frequency for it to feed on. Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible. 

Once the pain-body has taken you over, you want more pain. You become a victim or a perpetrator. You want to inflict pain, or you want to suffer pain, or both. There isn’t really much difference between the two. You are not conscious of this, of course, and will vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others. If you were truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve, for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane. 

The pain-body, which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually afraid of the light of your consciousness. It is afraid of being found out. Its survival depends on your unconscious identification with it, as well as on your unconscious fear of facing the pain that lives in you. But if you don’t face it, if you don’t bring the light of your consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again. The pain-body may seem to you like a dangerous monster that you cannot bear to look at, but I assure you that it is an insubstantial phantom that cannot prevail against the power of your presence. 

Some spiritual teachings state that all pain is ultimately an illusion, and this is true. The question is: Is it true for you? A mere belief doesn’t make it true. Do you want to experience pain for the rest of your life and keep saying that it is an illusion? Does that free you from the pain? What we are concerned with here is how you can realize this truth — that is, make it real in your own experience. 

So the pain-body doesn’t want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. The moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher dimension of consciousness has come in. I call it presence. You are now the witness or the watcher of the pain-body. This means that it cannot use you anymore by pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish itself through you. You have found your own innermost strength. You have accessed the power of Now

Source: New World Library 

I agree.

The hardest part about enligthenment is always maintaining that state.

Falling into unconsciousness is too easy, either you gradually need to rewire your brain to always be at high presence or something needs to click in your brain like a switch that just brings constant presence into your life.

Enlightenment is easy, but I only consider it "real enligthenment" when you are always at that level.

If someone loses it easily and gets into drama as soon as someone pisses in their soup that's not "enligthenment", that some weak sauce enligthenment that you get when everything is going your way and you meditate in some peaceful place.

If someone is always fully selfless not identified with the body and mind, and does not fear death because they are in presence with their higher nature at all times, then I consider them fully enligthened.

One cannot argue with reality when they realise to be reality.

Edited June 20, 2018 by blazed

[White]

@blazed Yes to all of that. But I'll say I don't believe that anyone can be in an enlightened state constantly.  When I say enlightened state I mean that Non dual God head state. I don't believe that's possible and I've heard many a credible teacher say likewise. But the state you're talking about is constant vigilance - and that for me is just the ability to distinguish the true from the false.  

[blazed]

1 minute ago, White said:

@blazed Yes to all of that. But I'll say I don't believe that anyone can be in an enlightened state constantly.  When I say enlightened state I mean that Non dual God head state. I don't believe that's possible and I've heard many a credible teacher say likewise. But the state you're talking about is constant vigilance - and that for me is just the ability to distinguish the true from the false.  

If by god head you mean beyond the mind and all thinking, like a samahdi state, yeah you can't stay there forever whilst you have a human form, in fact it's recommeneded not to cling onto that state either.

But you can be constantly present, like most gurus, Echhart Tolle, Sadhguru, etc.

You can be grounded in the nothingness/emptiness/stillness as the foundation of all things, before you see maya playing very consistently,

At that point you're both the emptiness that never changes, and all the activity present that is always changing.

[White]

2 minutes ago, blazed said:

You can be grounded in the nothingness/emptiness/stillness as the foundation of all things, before you see maya playing very consistently,

Yes. I cant find any disagreement with what you are saying. Yes, a background knowing, stillness from practice, yes, while life is still happening and one is participating. 

[White]

@blazed

Ken Wilber says the states you have permeate your ego and become stages of development for the ego. This fits nicely with what you're saying. Which is what yellow does, it finds the connections between seemingly opposing or fragmented ideas.