abrakamowse

No government at all is the best system.

@Ariel Here you have some definitions or explanation of "awareness" and "mindfulness" and their differences. Paying attention “on purpose” First of all, mindfulness involves paying attention “on purpose”. Mindfulness involves a conscious direction of our awareness. We sometimes (me included) talk about “mindfulness” and “awareness” as if they were interchangeable terms, but that’s not a good habit to get into. I may be aware I’m irritable, but that wouldn’t mean I was being mindful of my irritability. In order to be mindful I have to be purposefully aware of myself, not just vaguely and habitually aware. Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully. More here: http://www.wildmind.org/applied/daily-life/what-is-mindfulness

@DimmedBulb I think in that link I posted at the bottom of this, it's explained better than anything I can post here, take a look... http://www.buddhanet.net/4noble12.htm

From the website access to insight: The Buddha discovered that gaining release from samsara requires assigning to each of the Noble Truths a specific task: the first Noble Truth is to be comprehended; the second, abandoned; the third, realized; the fourth, developed. The full realization of the third Noble Truth paves the way for Awakening: the end of ignorance, craving, suffering, and kamma itself; the direct penetration to the transcendent freedom and supreme happiness that stands as the final goal of all the Buddha's teachings; the Unconditioned, the Deathless, Unbinding — Nibbana (Skt. Nirvana).

But... for the sake of trying to guess what is it, I think awaken is when you intellectually see there's no self, when you begin to understand and look for enlightenment, etc... when you know in your head but not in your experience all the things we talk here in the forum. In my opinion, everyone here in the forum (not 100% but all those who are seeking) are awakened, but that's the first step to enlightenment. Enlightenment is when you drop completely all believes systems.

I have no idea @Orange , but I am getting more and more comfortable with not knowing.

It is only when you realize life is taking you nowhere that it begins to have meaning. ~ Peter Ouspensky

It is only when you realize life is taking you nowhere that it begins to have meaning. ~ Peter Ouspensky

Mind cannot experience presence.

Can you observe your thoughts? As if they were just thoughts, without paying attention to the content of the thoughts? That's meditation and the only thing can help you to get out of this hole. IMO.

One who is not a companion of myriad things has departed the toils of materialism. The mind does not recognize the mind, the eye does not see the eye; since there is no opposition, when you see forms there are no forms there to be seen, and when you hear sounds there are no sounds there to be heard. Is this not departing the toils of materialism? There is no particular pathway into it, no gap through which to see it: Buddhism has no East or West, South or North; one does not say, “You are the disciple, I am the teacher” If your own self is clear and everything is It, when you visit a teacher you do not see that there is a teacher; when you inquire of yourself, you do not see that you have a self. When you read scripture, you do not see that there is scripture there. When you eat, you do not see that there is a meal there. When you sit and meditate, you do not see that there is any sitting. You do not slip up in your everyday tasks, yet you cannot lay hold of anything at all. When you see in this way, are you not independent and free? Extracts from: Instant Zen by Foyen

It's not eliminating or reducing the ego, is understanding what it is and reacting in the correct way, not being controlled by the ego. When you are unconscious you think you have control over your ego, but that's not real. The ego is controlling you by making you "think" that you are the body, the mind, whatever... What we have to do is explained well in Zen teachings, here I copy something from the book "Instant Zen" " One of the peculiarities of Zen Buddhism is the idea that awakening can take place instantaneously. Zen training, from this point o f view, does not mean learning doctrines, rituals, and postures, but preparing the (ego) mind to accept this awakening and integrate it constructively with daily life in the world." So, the idea is to get awakened so the mind accepts that and the ego-mind integrate it to the new consciousness. The ego doesn't disappear, it is understood from a wider and wiser perspective.

That's good, I really used to believe in a lot of stuff I don't believe now. Not because I think is false. Mostly because It's not possible to experience it so I prefer to leave that aside. Zen is good on that.

Maybe this can be of help with what you talked about things that we don't know. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle

Meditate only 30 mins per day and then socialize 23 hours and a half... but you need to sleep 8 hours, so you have 15 hours to socialize. And you will realize that when you began to practice meditation, you naturally become much more social. There's no problem to reconcile meditation with socialization because they never were antagonistic, one reinforce the other.

I AM

Welcome @JRF2k !!!!

http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/on-practice/let-everything-happen-to-you "Rilke’s statement, “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” is very apropos, but it might suggest to some people being overwhelmed by feelings. Allowing yourself to be overwhelmed is not what Rilke is suggesting, though, since he also advises us to “just keep going.” When we’re lost in our feelings we become passive and so we give up on the “going.” The feeling becomes the only thing we can know or see. When we “just keep going” we’re aware that we’re going through a process that will naturally end. The more we resist our feelings, the longer the process will take. The more we can accept them and have compassion for them, the more quickly they’ll pass."

It can't terrify "you" because there's not really a "you". At least not a separated "you".

You are not depressed. You "think" you are depressed. You are attached to your thoughts, that's why you believe every thought that appears in your mind. You won't understand until you do some practice. If you do mindful meditation you will notice after a short period of time that some negatives thoughts dissolve in front of you and the have no power. But you need to sit and meditate at least 15 mins a day. The idea is to train the mind to not be attached to any thought, you are not everything you think you are. Those are possibilities. If you choose to believe the thought that it appears saying "I am depressed"... you will be depressed and your body will feel tired, and so on... you have to stop believing those negative thoughts. Watch Leo's video about Mindfulness meditation This one is good too... by Teal Swan

Totally @David1 we have to become it because we have to power to it. We are "it".

Question 1 = Who thinks that? Answer to the other points: There's nothing boring, the mind make you think is boring. If you do mindfully, paying attention to what you do, trying to master it, to do it perfect, even cleaning the floors is exciting. This is what Zen monks do everyday and they enjoy it, because they "learn" how to enjoy even simple and quotidian things or "chores". “Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.” – Shunryu Suzuki" "Make cleaning and cooking become meditation. Aside from the zazen mentioned above, cooking and cleaning are two of the most exalted parts of a Zen monk’s day. They are both great ways to practice mindfulness, and can be great rituals performed each day. If cooking and cleaning seem like boring chores to you, try doing them as a form of meditation. Put your entire mind into those tasks, concentrate, and do them slowly and completely. It could change your entire day (as well as leave you with a cleaner house)." More about this here: http://zenhabits.net/12-essential-rules-to-live-more-like-a-zen-monk/

How do you define the I AM? I ask this because I see that a lot of people like to say "there's nothing", "nothingness", "the void". That all this is true, but in my opinion it can be a bit deceptive, because the ego is always going to extremes. If it's nothing the other possibility doesn't exist. That's not how reality works. In reality all the possibilities are there, in one. The I AM (or the self) is nothing, and everything. It doesn't exists and it exists. So I see like confusion when people ask me what is no-self. I tell them that you can't find a self. "I" when is identified with the body, with impermanent things, like thoughts, feelings, skills, etc.... that I am doesn't exists, is fake. But there's pure awareness, not identified with nothing yet it is everything, that's the I AM I talk about. I searched some information about it, mostly from two of my favorites Advaita teachers, Nisargadatta Maharaj and Ramana Maharshi. Maharaj wrote the book that in my opinion is like the Bible of Advaita called "I AM THAT". And that is what it says about them on wikipedia: "The South Indian sage Ramana Maharshi mentions that in the Hindu Advaita Vedanta school, of all the definitions of God, "none is indeed so well put as the biblical statement 'I am that I am'". He maintained that although Hindu scripture contains similar statements in the Mahavakyas, these are not as direct as given in Exodus. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj explains the "I am" as an abstraction in the mind of the Stateless State, of the Absolute, or the Supreme Reality, called Parabrahman: it is pure awareness, prior to thoughts, free from perceptions, associations, memories." I wanted to post this question several days ago but I was always postponing it so I wanna thanks because we were talking about the topic on another thread and what he has to say got my attention, even when we don't agree in this point. But he was very respectful and I really like to change opinions with others, that's how we grow. Let me know guys what do you think about all this thing, does the I AM exists??? Or there's nothing at all??? How do you define "reality"? In my opinion reality and the I AM are the same. What is not the same is the thought that I AM this body, I am a loser, I am ugly, etc... the identification with a separated self, that's not real. The self is one, and is the I AM, is nothing and everything. Is non-dual. It has both characteristics, is a self and no-self. Is there a self, a no-self, awareness, reality, I AM that this or those, I AM not, etc etc etc...??????? And yara yara yara as Leo says.

Thanks @Markusl for the post, really deep. And clarifying. It's hard to talk about it that I think the best option is not to name it. I understand now in the old Jewish tradition why they never call him/her/it/whatever by its name.