I am enlightened. Sincere seekers: ask me anything

[CreamCat]

If I keep meditating for one hour a day and take psychedelics from time to time, will I obtain and maintain enlightenment?

[winterknight]

30 minutes ago, CreamCat said:

If I keep meditating for one hour a day and take psychedelics from time to time, will I obtain and maintain enlightenment?

No.

The question comes from a lack of basic understanding about the meaning of enlightenment.

Enlightenment is not really something to be "obtained." You are enlightened already; the goal is simply to remove the obstacles to seeing that.

Meditating an hour a day is not enough. Your very nature is meditation: the point is to realize that. To do that, you will have to direct your search for longer and longer periods of time -- you will have to meditate while you are doing every other task in your life. A waking meditation of continuous self-inquiry.

You need to educate yourself: follow these links and do a lot of reading. 

Edited February 20, 2019 by winterknight

[Shin]

51 minutes ago, CreamCat said:

If I keep meditating for one hour a day and take psychedelics from time to time, will I obtain and maintain enlightenment?

If you go deep enough, you can't not meditate every single second of your life.

And that would still not be enlightenment lol

Edited February 20, 2019 by Shin

[Aakash]

the indivisable is being this is where my self-inquiry has led me. at all times you are nothingness itself. its like the whole point of enlightenment is to reliquish your doership or seperate self

true or false?

i'm not actually looking for an answer, there is nobody who is asking the question. i just wanted to express my excitement and so i hope you can engage in a brace the question with the full might of your being. and express it in which ever way you feel like you can express it, with your being. 

like the jello lol, it was a good expression of it. you are inside the jello, but you can not see how you are it. 

Edited February 20, 2019 by Aakash

[cena655]

@winterknight I've read your post about being honest with myself...then I started realizing what I really wanted all the time. It may sound weird, but I've always wanted to be successful with picking up girls. 

After 2 years of trying, I gave up a few years ago. I'm still doubting if that would be a good activity to follow, but I just can't help thinking about it...

[winterknight]

2 hours ago, Aakash said:

the indivisable is being this is where my self-inquiry has led me. at all times you are nothingness itself. its like the whole point of enlightenment is to reliquish your doership or seperate self

true or false?

i'm not actually looking for an answer, there is nobody who is asking the question. i just wanted to express my excitement and so i hope you can engage in a brace the question with the full might of your being. and express it in which ever way you feel like you can express it, with your being. 

like the jello lol, it was a good expression of it. you are inside the jello, but you can not see how you are it. 

Great. I would just add that even the word "relinquish" is not quite accurate. There is no one there to relinquish or not relinquish -- that is knowledge.

[winterknight]

54 minutes ago, cena655 said:

@winterknight I've read your post about being honest with myself...then I started realizing what I really wanted all the time. It may sound weird, but I've always wanted to be successful with picking up girls. 

After 2 years of trying, I gave up a few years ago. I'm still doubting if that would be a good activity to follow, but I just can't help thinking about it...

Well, I think you should pursue it then. But there might be unconscious psychological obstacles that have prevented you from being successful. I'd recommend getting psychoanalytic therapy (not all therapy is equally good... psychoanalytic therapy is generally speaking the best you can get) -- be prepared to spend a good amount of time and effort if you actually want to get insight into yourself.

[CreamCat]

15 hours ago, winterknight said:

No.

The question comes from a lack of basic understanding about the meaning of enlightenment.

Enlightenment is not really something to be "obtained." You are enlightened already; the goal is simply to remove the obstacles to seeing that.

Meditating an hour a day is not enough. Your very nature is meditation: the point is to realize that. To do that, you will have to direct your search for longer and longer periods of time -- you will have to meditate while you are doing every other task in your life. A waking meditation of continuous self-inquiry.

You need to educate yourself: follow these links and do a lot of reading. 

Yo, my mind is blown.

Meditation is life. Life is meditation.

[CreamCat]

When I die, could I be brought back to an alternate reality where I can make different choices for my life?

For example, I regret breaking up with my ex-girl friend just to look for a better girl friend. If I shot my head, could I be brought back to the point right before I made the stupid decision to break up with her?

[CreamCat]

16 hours ago, winterknight said:

Meditating an hour a day is not enough.

If it's not enough, what is the purpose of dedicated meditation sessions?

 

[tedens]

@CreamCat It's for long period of time path.

[winterknight]

8 hours ago, CreamCat said:

When I die, could I be brought back to an alternate reality where I can make different choices for my life?

For example, I regret breaking up with my ex-girl friend just to look for a better girl friend. If I shot my head, could I be brought back to the point right before I made the stupid decision to break up with her?

I don't know. Enlightenment is not about this sort of question.

7 hours ago, CreamCat said:

If it's not enough, what is the purpose of dedicated meditation sessions?

Training to bring meditation into the rest of life. You can learn to swim in the swimming pool, but then you can take it out into the ocean.

[Dumb Enlightened]

On 20/02/2019 at 11:02 AM, winterknight said:

This is a good start, but you go back to "sleep" because you are not getting to the root of the problem. You need to investigate the "I" that "wakes up" and which "goes back to sleep."

So try self-inquiry all day long. And more broadly, follow the path.

Got it, the I who thinks can wake up is a thought, there's no I thinking the thought there's just the thought itself, the thought comes from nowhere, so this I who wants to wake up appears when the thought appears, without the thought there's no one to wake up

[winterknight]

43 minutes ago, Dumb Enlightened said:

Got it, the I who thinks can wake up is a thought, there's no I thinking the thought there's just the thought itself, the thought comes from nowhere, so this I who wants to wake up appears when the thought appears, without the thought there's no one to wake up

Yes, that's a good way of putting it into words, but also notice -- is there something constant between when the thought arises and when it doesn't?

The key is seeing the truth in your own experience -- and you will know when you see it because it will bring Peace. To see the truth in your own experience, if you ever feel disturbance, feel where the "I" is coming from -- hold on to it. If it disappears in a peaceful nothing, stay in that. 

But if you "lose it," again examine what lost it... again hold on to the sense of the "I"... that will lead you back to that Peace. Do it over and over and over again until it sticks.

[Dumb Enlightened]

3 hours ago, winterknight said:

Yes, that's a good way of putting it into words, but also notice -- is there something constant between when the thought arises and when it doesn't?

The key is seeing the truth in your own experience -- and you will know when you see it because it will bring Peace. To see the truth in your own experience, if you ever feel disturbance, feel where the "I" is coming from -- hold on to it. If it disappears in a peaceful nothing, stay in that. 

But if you "lose it," again examine what lost it... again hold on to the sense of the "I"... that will lead you back to that Peace. Do it over and over and over again until it sticks.

Thank you for the help !!! It was really helpful

[ivory]

@winterknight If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting to find this place where we feel we are located and to stay with that feeling. I feel like I'm located in the forehead. When I meditate on that feeling I notice that this feeling of "I" is an object. It's not the source. So then I become curious of the thing that's aware. But the source of awareness doesn't seem to have any location. That sense of "I" is the closest I seem to be able to get to the source. What are your thoughts?

[BjarkeT]

Why should you care about enlightenment in the first place? If it is to get rid of lifts problems as i have heard someone say it does why not just accept that life is difficult instead?

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.” scott peck

If it is for satisfaction why not just radical acceptance instead?

If its for truth can't you just use science like differential analysis and scientific method or ask someone who is already enlightened? 

Also what is enlightenment? 

Edited February 22, 2019 by BjarkeT

[winterknight]

2 hours ago, ivory said:

@winterknight If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting to find this place where we feel we are located and to stay with that feeling. I feel like I'm located in the forehead. When I meditate on that feeling I notice that this feeling of "I" is an object. It's not the source. So then I become curious of the thing that's aware. But the source of awareness doesn't seem to have any location. That sense of "I" is the closest I seem to be able to get to the source. What are your thoughts?

Yeah, you're doing it exactly right. Do not stay with the forehead -- just like you did, you notice that the forehead, where you think the I is, is actually "an object...not the source."

So then that "sense of I" that "doesn't seem to have any location"... just keep holding that sense all the time, every waking moment. Keep trying and trying to hold it. If your attention slips, bring it back.

From time to time, you might notice that when you think you are holding that feeling, you are actually holding something else -- a thought or a feeling. If so, recognize that, let it go, and come back to that "sense of I." Hold it and hold it, and if anything else comes up, go back to that feeling. Eventually something will click -- you'll know it when it happens. Just do it for as long as necessary.

Then even when something clicks, you may seem to lose it again. So then repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

2 hours ago, BjarkeT said:

Why should you care about enlightenment in the first place? If it is to get rid of lifts problems as i have heard someone say it does why not just accept that life is difficult instead?

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.” scott peck

If it is for satisfaction why not just radical acceptance instead?

If its for truth can't you just use science like differential analysis and scientific method or ask someone who is already enlightened? 

Also what is enlightenment? 

You should care about enlightenment because it is the source of ultimate truth and peace. You don't need radical acceptance if you can have something better -- namely, perfect peace.

Scientific truth is contingent and uncertain and incomplete. Enlightenment is not like that. It is perfect. You cannot ask someone who is enlightened -- well, you can, but it is not enough -- because it cannot be put in words.

Lol, I like that you asked the most important question last. Enlightenment is simply clearing away the wrong belief (and the habits based on that belief) that you are individual person, someone who does things and who enjoys and suffers life. Enlightenment is the recognition that this is an illusion, and that what you are in fact is something which is perfect and complete and beyond words.

Edited February 23, 2019 by winterknight

[PetarKa]

@winterknight If God / The Truth (whatever you want to call "it") is absolutely infinite and formless, then why is this "dream" of life this particular form. Why must we be human? Why must we live on Earth? Why not a totally different world?

Related question: Why must there be ignorance in the first place at all? Why must there be the delusion of self? Why not just infinite awareness right from "our birth"? Why must there be a spiritual path in the first place?

Does Enlightenment give the answers to these questions?

 

[winterknight]

9 minutes ago, PetarKa said:

@winterknight If God / The Truth (whatever you want to call "it") is absolutely infinite and formless, then why is this "dream" of life this particular form. Why must we be human? Why must we live on Earth? Why not a totally different world?

Related question: Why must there be ignorance in the first place at all? Why must there be the delusion of self? Why not just infinite awareness right from "our birth"? Why must there be a spiritual path in the first place?

Does Enlightenment give the answers to these questions?

 

All these questions are based on a false assumption of ego. Enlightenment does not "give the answers" so much as dissolve the questions, show them to be ultimately incoherent. Yet enlightenment will give you peace -- these questions will not bother you.

There cannot really be said to be a dream, Earth, ignorance, delusion, or a spiritual path. Just hearing these words is not worth much, though.

You have to see what this means in your own direct experience.

Edited February 23, 2019 by winterknight