I am enlightened. Sincere seekers: ask me anything

[sidaz10]

during a day asking who i am is same effective as sitting in meditation pose and doing self inquiry?

[winterknight]

12 minutes ago, sidaz10 said:

during a day asking who i am is same effective as sitting in meditation pose and doing self inquiry?

self inquiry should be done at all waking moments, not just in sitting meditation. Sitting meditation is only useful at the very beginning, just for a little practice.

And 'asking who am I' is not really anything -- self-inquiry is tracing the I feeling. Read my guide very carefully and follow it.

Edited July 25, 2019 by winterknight

[zeroISinfinity]

No mind state achieved.. Ok empty perception with no cognition. 

But somehow it Just feels it is not IT. 

What are sensations? 

[zeroISinfinity]

Who am I ask you this questions? 

 

[DrewNows]

18 minutes ago, zeroISinfinity said:

Who am I ask you this questions? 

 

you aren’t who you think you are

you aren’t who I think you are 

you are who you think i think you are 

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by DrewNows

[winterknight]

2 hours ago, zeroISinfinity said:

Who am I ask you this questions? 

 

Read my guide to self-inquiry carefully and follow it.

[Preetom]

@winterknight

Hello hope you are doing well. 

I kinda touched on this a bit before but I'd be grateful if you could elaborate more on this topic.

The topic is the concept of 'life' and 'consciousness'.

Upon doing self inquiry, I inevitably reach a point where the concept of 'life' literally vanishes. 'Life' turns out to be an utter illusion. Thoughts, emotions, sensations, sights, sounds etc none has absolutely no life in them. This illusion of life only seems to persist in inadvertance. But when probbed and inquired, it is gone.

My question is, is this what is meant by Maya or primal illusion/ignorance?

Like exactly in a dream at night, all the people and surroundings seems to be so alive and interacting among them. But really they were, are or will never be 'alive'. Same case in waking state, the illusion of movement and change create this illusion of 'life'. But when inquired, 'life' is never found. This verily undermines our natural outlook of treating everything as alive. Maya caught us by the throat.

Same deal with 'consciousness'. Upon inquiry, it is found that the ONLY aware element is 'I'. It is nowhere to be found, there is only a sense of existence and upon deep inquiry even that fades away as well.

So dovetailing with the 'life' question, being a 'conscious' agent is another trick of Maya. Ultimately non-existence and yet dominating all throughout our lives.

Now having all that said, I usually ignore all these perceptual discoveries and instead try to lock on the 'I' who notices these shifts in self-inquiry, as it should be done. 

So I'd like to hear your take on the concept of 'life' and 'consciousness' that you came across through your own discovery. Thanks.

Edited July 27, 2019 by Preetom

[winterknight]

20 hours ago, Preetom said:

@winterknight

Hello hope you are doing well. 

I kinda touched on this a bit before but I'd be grateful if you could elaborate more on this topic.

The topic is the concept of 'life' and 'consciousness'.

Upon doing self inquiry, I inevitably reach a point where the concept of 'life' literally vanishes. 'Life' turns out to be an utter illusion. Thoughts, emotions, sensations, sights, sounds etc none has absolutely no life in them. This illusion of life only seems to persist in inadvertance. But when probbed and inquired, it is gone.

My question is, is this what is meant by Maya or primal illusion/ignorance?

Like exactly in a dream at night, all the people and surroundings seems to be so alive and interacting among them. But really they were, are or will never be 'alive'. Same case in waking state, the illusion of movement and change create this illusion of 'life'. But when inquired, 'life' is never found. This verily undermines our natural outlook of treating everything as alive. Maya caught us by the throat.

Same deal with 'consciousness'. Upon inquiry, it is found that the ONLY aware element is 'I'. It is nowhere to be found, there is only a sense of existence and upon deep inquiry even that fades away as well.

So dovetailing with the 'life' question, being a 'conscious' agent is another trick of Maya. Ultimately non-existence and yet dominating all throughout our lives.

Now having all that said, I usually ignore all these perceptual discoveries and instead try to lock on the 'I' who notices these shifts in self-inquiry, as it should be done. 

So I'd like to hear your take on the concept of 'life' and 'consciousness' that you came across through your own discovery. Thanks.

Like anything else, really, life and consciousness are concepts — that is, they are language constructs built upon the illusion of a division between “I” and “other.”

When the mind is in recognized silence and that separation is revealed to be wrong, the meaning of the concepts, too, must go.

Maya in this context, it might be said, is the tendency to try to understand these concepts — even as illusions. Even to call them illusions or maya is in a sense to give them too much credit.

When the mind is immersed in its own constant nameless silence, these questions about when the certain things are illusory or not themselves do not make sense. It isn’t that things “appear” lifeless, but that the entire concept of seeming alive or dead is wrong. 

[Preetom]

2 hours ago, winterknight said:

Like anything else, really, life and consciousness are concepts — that is, they are language constructs built upon the illusion of a division between “I” and “other.”

When the mind is in recognized silence and that separation is revealed to be wrong, the meaning of the concepts, too, must go.

Maya in this context, it might be said, is the tendency to try to understand these concepts — even as illusions. Even to call them illusions or maya is in a sense to give them too much credit.

When the mind is immersed in its own constant nameless silence, these questions about when the certain things are illusory or not themselves do not make sense. It isn’t that things “appear” lifeless, but that the entire concept of seeming alive or dead is wrong. 

Thanks for replying!

This outlook is really disturbing, especially in the beginning. 

Stephen Wolinsky often says language is abstract representation of things that don't really exist.

So the question is, is there really an actual human behind the word 'human'? Is there an actual thing called life behind the word 'life'? So on and so forth.

It seems like a gigantic house of cards about to collapse from a single poke. 

"All pointers point to that which is not"

Scary stuff 

 

[lennart]

How has the relationship to other people changed?

[pluto]

Why does the cookie crumble?

[FoxFoxFox]

Hey @winterknight could you further explain this paragraph from your blog post: 

The “I am” thought, which is, after all, just a thought, is painful and binding because of another invisible thought — it’s the ‘veiling’ thought. That is, the fact that the “I am” thought is itself merely a filter for the original pure light, is hidden. There is an invisible thought that ‘covers up’ the fact of the space within which thoughts occur. It hides that space. It hides the reflectivity of thought and perception — the fact that these are all things that occur to us.

What do you mean by invisible thought? Is this supposed to mean an unconscious quality? Would it be correct to assume that you are referring to the "I am" thought hogging all of awareness?  

[Aakash]

@FoxFoxFox No , he is talking about the invisible thought. Which is present when there is an absent of thought. 

In other words, stop using thought and quite the mind. 

Then what ever remains

THAT is the invisible thought which is not it. 

You must keep going until there is   "[      ]"      that which no symbol or words can point to

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Aakash

[winterknight]

On 7/28/2019 at 0:35 PM, Preetom said:

“All pointers point to that which is not"

Scary stuff 

11 hours ago, lennart said:

How has the relationship to other people changed?

I don’t really answer questions about “my” experience, since the answers are always misleading...

9 hours ago, pluto said:

Why does the cookie crumble?

Who says it crumbles?

31 minutes ago, FoxFoxFox said:

Hey @winterknight could you further explain this paragraph from your blog post: 

The “I am” thought, which is, after all, just a thought, is painful and binding because of another invisible thought — it’s the ‘veiling’ thought. That is, the fact that the “I am” thought is itself merely a filter for the original pure light, is hidden. There is an invisible thought that ‘covers up’ the fact of the space within which thoughts occur. It hides that space. It hides the reflectivity of thought and perception — the fact that these are all things that occur to us.

What do you mean by invisible thought? Is this supposed to mean an unconscious quality? Would it be correct to assume that you are referring to the "I am" thought hogging all of awareness?  

The so-called “invisible thought” is what is known in the eastern religions as “ignorance,” “forgetfulness,” “avarana,” “avidya,” or “maya.” It is what seems to prevent us from noticing that the “I am” occurs against a boundless backdrop.

It’s just a theoretical construct, really. Search for ignorance and of course it will then be recognized that it was never the case.

[FoxFoxFox]

@winterknight Gotcha

[Aakash]

@winterknight man that was a top notch answer. I was going to write what ever “answer” wintersolider gives you is not it . So I guess the best words were what ever stop you from seeing true self ahah thanks I’ll take a lesson from that 

[Einsteinonacid]

I don’t know if this has been asked yet but, how has your relationship with your family changed?

[winterknight]

52 minutes ago, Einsteinonacid said:

I don’t know if this has been asked yet but, how has your relationship with your family changed?

I don't really answer questions about 'my' experience because the answers are inevitably misleading... 

[Nemo28]

@winterknight Hey, just now I had sudden feeling that I am whatever I look at. So for e.g. If I see old lady pass by me, I feel like I am that lady, and when she looks at me she is me, how well this fits into enlightenment paradigm? 

[Nahm]

22 hours ago, winterknight said:

I don't really answer questions about 'my' experience because the answers are inevitably misleading... 

Do you see teachers who openly talk about this as misleading? Rupert is a good example. He is understanding of the ‘my’ ‘experience’ situation, fully understands the sorting of this is for the seeker to discover, and thus talks about his wife, son, Malfred, etc, openly. How is he misleading people in doing this? Thanks! ??