Best enlightenment resources for my level?

[Itsokimok]

So far I understand (at least conceptually) that all I know of life is experience and all I know of experience is the knowing and that being/awareness is prior to any objective experience. The knowing that knows sadness is the same knowing that knows joy or an itch on the hand or a thought about spirituality or the need to pee really bad. I realize my whole life has been experience, awareness, perception, knowing, being. What else do I know other than this? Even my sense of "I", the self is an experience, knowing, perception...This gives me a slight feeling of fear and freakiness. But nothing radical and destabilizing. Oh and also am-ness and is-ness feel the same. Sometimes I feel like saying, "Is!" "Am!" "Being!" "Now!" "Aware!" when I focus on the fact that I'm aware and experiencing the world. But I don't see how that leads to enlightenment yet... I also get that I can't insist that my 'I' is in my heart or head. I can see how I would assume it's in those places just because the most engrossing perceptual modes are located in the upper part of the body (seeing with the eyes, thinking in the head, talking with the mouth, expressing emotions with the face, feeling in the chest etc.) But that doesn't mean 'I' am actually there. So where am 'I'?? I don't know... So this is as far as I've gotten. 

Any books and teachers to recommend for a newbie like me? I would love to get some more traction with this!

Thank you

[VeganAwake]

 

[Demeter]

 @Itsokimok , 

This book is life-changing. It is a biographical work by a professor of Religion who used Lsd to explore states of consciousness/ universal intelligence over 20 years:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44321378-lsd-and-the-mind-of-the-universe

 

[iamthat]

2 hours ago, Itsokimok said:

So far I understand (at least conceptually) that all I know of life is experience and all I know of experience is the knowing and that being/awareness is prior to any objective experience. ... Oh and also am-ness and is-ness feel the same. Sometimes I feel like saying, "Is!" "Am!" "Being!" "Now!" "Aware!" when I focus on the fact that I'm aware and experiencing the world. But I don't see how that leads to enlightenment yet... I also get that I can't insist that my 'I' is in my heart or head. I can see how I would assume it's in those places just because the most engrossing perceptual modes are located in the upper part of the body (seeing with the eyes, thinking in the head, talking with the mouth, expressing emotions with the face, feeling in the chest etc.) But that doesn't mean 'I' am actually there. So where am 'I'?? I don't know... So this is as far as I've gotten. 

Any books and teachers to recommend for a newbie like me? I would love to get some more traction with this!

Thank you

Try reading Ramana Maharshi. He addresses all the questions you raise.

You may find it easier to start with books about Ramana Maharshi which summarise his teachings about the Self and the illusory nature of the sense of "I", along with the process of self-enquiry  to discover the nature of our own awareness. David Godman is a good place to start.

Peace

[Nahm]

Eckhart Tolle...Stillness Speaks, then The Power of Now, then wait a year and read Stillness Speaks again. 

[Seraphim]

2 hours ago, iamthat said:

Try reading Ramana Maharshi. He addresses all the questions you raise.

You may find it easier to start with books about Ramana Maharshi which summarise his teachings about the Self and the illusory nature of the sense of "I", along with the process of self-enquiry  to discover the nature of our own awareness. David Godman is a good place to start.

Peace

Yes! He represents a sane, grounded version of non-duality, unlike many of the new teachers.

[CosmicTrekker]

Just my two cent here - nothing more.  Asking these questions is really just the latest progress of a process that has been maturing in you for a very long time and it will continue to mature into an understanding that will lead you to see what you're seeking (or see the end of seeking, to put it another way). 

Although we're all heading to the same destination, every bodies path and the means are different. What is right for one person, may be completly wrong for another person - as illustrated by huge number of different teachings and methods. 

My advise would be to go with your intuition, with what reallly resonates with you; because it's you and only you, that it all has to make sense to. Try out various teachings as suggested by others above and see what touches you. Don't worry about making mistakes by choosing the wrong path or teacher - the master within will always bring you back on the straight path. Sometimes the only way to learn is through making mistakes. 

Above all else - be humble; be sincere and truthful and be a light-unto-yourself.

[Itsokimok]

Thank you so much guys!!!

[Itsokimok]

@CosmicTrekker Good point man!! I'll keep that in mind big time. Intuition is huge. I actually normally don't mess with enlightenment as I focus more on self-improvement, but my intuition told me now is the time to get more serious about awakening. I decided to listen to it urging.

[PopoyeSailor]

Yoga Vasistha(With unnecessary parts removed): https://estudantedavedanta.net/The-Supreme-Yoga-Swami-Venkatesananda.pdf Along with complete knowledge of Non-Duality, it also is the best entertainer than the movies The Matrix, Inception and Interstellar combined. 

Here is the Full Version for reading online: https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/yoga-vasistha-english 

Note: Full version gives extremely long poetic descriptions of every thing, which feels very boring. But these poetic descriptions are so heavenly, they can be useful as descriptive memories for acting as heavenly realities in the after-life states. I would recommend sticking to the short version in the first link for the time being.

Here you can have small taste of what this work is all about:

 

Edited August 15, 2020 by PopoyeSailor

[cobalto]

@Itsokimok maybe it's time for a chemical accelerator

[VeganAwake]

The transcendence of Duality vs Non-duality is what non-duality points to.

So non-duality is the case after all concepts and ideas about what this is have been dropped, and it's simultaneously all the concepts and ideas before their dropped.

It's everything ❤

 

Edited August 15, 2020 by VeganAwake

[Eminate]

Someone that I've really resonated with, is Rupert Spira. You can, of course, find him on YouTube. It's very practical and he leaves out a lot of the symbols. He has some great pointers though.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Eminate
Typo

[Johnny5]

Greg Goode maybe?

[Itsokimok]

@Eminate Yeah I started studying him this week!

[Itsokimok]

@PopoyeSailor Cool, thanks!

[Itsokimok]

@Nahm Ah! I've read the Power of Now already. Didn't know about Stillness Speaks! I found it. Thanks man

[Itsokimok]

@VeganAwake Jim Newman's approach sounds really different from, say, that of Rupert Spira. In another video, I heard him say that What Is doesn't need awareness or consciousness to be whereas Rupert says awareness is the only reality there is. Also do you know what Jim means about the "individual" being an "experience" that hides What Is? Why is there this experience?

[Adamq8]

21 hours ago, Demeter said:

 @Itsokimok , 

This book is life-changing. It is a biographical work by a professor of Religion who used Lsd to explore states of consciousness/ universal intelligence over 20 years:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44321378-lsd-and-the-mind-of-the-universe

 

Agreed! Awesome book 

[Itsokimok]

4 minutes ago, Adamq8 said:

Agreed! Awesome book 

I'll have to check it out. I've done LSD but not a high enough dose to have any such experiences